When Pyxis Mobile implemented its strategy change in July 2010, it appointed its then-CEO, Robert Mazzarella, as its Chairman.

FORBES: Pyxis Mobile Lets Business Build its Own Apps

The picture has a stately, waltz-like rhythm, as the narrator (Marcello Mazzarella, a dead ringer for the real Proust) guides us through the declining fortunes of his friends under the shadow of the First World War.

NEWYORKER: Time Regained