Bonosky, Phillip "Neapolitan Night"

Bonosky's gritty World War 2 short story about four American merchant seamen out for a night of shore leave in recently Allied liberated Naples is a raw, lurid example of realism in fiction. For three of the seamen this was a return visit to the southern Italian city; accompanying them this evening is Mario, a young Italian-American crewman, on his first overseas voyage. Only part of the city is open to Allied soldiers and merchant seamen, and that section is heavily patrolled by M.P.s who make certain that no one ventures out of this secured zone. Incredible poverty, filthy living conditions and casual prostitution assault the visitors. Though his older, war-seasoned compatriots take it all in stride, Mario is repulsed by the depravity which he encounters. Looking for cheap booze, the Americans are eventually brought to a hovel of a one room apartment where they are offered, in addition to liquor, the sexual services of the family's youngest daughter. While the older men take their turns having sex with her in broad view, Mario resists - even when the seamen strip him naked and toss him onto the soiled mattress where the pre-pubescent girl awaits him. Sitting over in at a corner table, eating pasta, is the girl's young brother, who watches his sister having sex and, along with the rest of his family (including the prostituted girl) and the seamen, find it greatly humorous that Mario refuses a sexual encounter. Horrified by what he has seen, Mario quickly pulls his clothes back on and runs back to the quiet and safety of his ship.