Amazon.com: Recipient of the 1966 "Ferro di Cavallo" prize for a first novel, THE PORTHOLE was a highly praised and controversial debut. Pulling together diverse elements from the musical experiments of Cage, Schnebel and Kagel, the pictorial innovations of assemblage and pop art, x-rated comics, and dialogue from horror and World War II films, Spatola liberated his narrative from the stultifying edifice of Italian prose. The Porthole remains even more important today for its remarkable achievement in that fertile period of experimental literature. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.