Unwrapping Time, Place, and Taste: The Box of Torrone by John J. Trause

Some books arrive like destinations. Others arrive like gifts.

The Box of Torrone by John J. Trause begins with a single, intimate object: a box of Italian torrone, sent years ago by the author’s beloved Italian aunt. From that artifact, Trause builds a meticulously structured poetic journey—one that unfolds across six flavors, six Italian cities, and multiple layers of time.

This is a book that understands pleasure as architecture. Lemons open onto Naples. Chocolate carries the weight of Rome. Coffee lingers in Florence. Almonds drift through Venice. Hazelnuts ground Milan. Each flavor becomes a portal—into geography, history, cinema, and memory—where taste is not decoration, but meaning.

Structured around a three-part opening suite, In the Box of Torrone, the collection tracks a journey up the Italian peninsula while also moving sideways and backward through time. Along the way, readers encounter unexpected terrains: Mexican jungles, Los Angeles, Fort Lee, New Jersey, and even the Willy Wonka Chocolate Factory. These juxtapositions are deliberate. Trause’s work is experimental without being obscure, formally inventive while remaining sensuous and accessible.

At the heart of The Box of Torrone is a cinematic meditation on time itself—yesterday, today, and tomorrow—filtered through international film, personal inheritance, and the act of savoring. This is a book that slows the reader down. It invites attention. It asks us to taste before we rush on.

In a cultural moment defined by speed and spectacle, The Box of Torrone offers something rarer: immersion without exhaustion. It is armchair travel, yes—but also a study in how memory forms, how objects carry love, and how poetry can hold both pleasure and rigor in the same hand.

The Box of Torrone is available now from Unsolicited Press.