Titles Reviewed:

Everyday People: Profiles from the Garden State
by Al Sullivan

Were You Always An Italian? Ancestors and Other Icons of Italian America - Maria Laurino

Rosa The Life of an Italian Immigrant - Marie Hall Ets

In The Garden Of Papa Santuzzu - Tony Ardizzone

Altar Boy Chronicles - Tony Pasquarello

About Anthony Buccino

Everyday People: Profiles from the Garden State
by Al Sullivan

If you ever met Al Sullivan, the last thing you'd do is picture him as a dashing young soldier long ago at the height of the Vietnam war - much less baby sitting a bunch of freaky rockers outside his helicopter at a place called Woodstock. Yet, that's one of the duties he 'volunteered' for.

In his essay "By The Time I Got To Woodstock" Sullivan briefly notes his 1st visit to the upstate refuge - and his overwhelming fear of helicopters. It is one of the rare times in Everyday People that he uses "I". It's to be forgiven him because he immediately uses his modern day visit to Woodstock as a news-peg to compare that town with Secaucus - his current tour of duty.

Sullivan worked for me for a few months in 96-97, and though the months were few, the impact has been long-lasting. He covered the mundane meetings, sure, but there was always something else lurking behind the tousled hair and the distant stare. He had the ragtag Tandy laptop blinking on one desk, the company terminal blinking there, a notepad in front of him - all while he was on the phone talking to another source. Sullivan was always on the go, always three steps ahead of the sunshine, so to speak. It is a pleasure to read him again.

It was there, in those other stories that Al set himself apart. If he worked for me now, he'd be a 'special writer' - that's someone who does his beat, and also turns in outstanding stories from left field, Clark's Pond, the emergency room and just about anywhere else fate takes him.

"Down and Out in Hoboken" relays the chance meeting with a panhandler at St. Mary's Hospital. The panhandler - whose name Sullivan never learns - says "People give me money to make me go away..." And in just a couple hundred words, you learn an awful lot about the panhandler - and the skill of Sullivan's perception of people. That's what makes Everyday People in its gritty realism a pure reading pleasure.

Perhaps the editors of Everyday People could have selected a few longer profiles, but as Sullivan notes in his Preface, "the word count has always been my curse," and I'll vouch for his observation here, "as it is for all prolific journalists," and again I agree. While we await the next volume, dig in here, and meet some interesting everyday people.

Everyday People: Profiles from the Garden State by Al Sullivan

Were You Always An Italian? Ancestors and Other Icons of Italian America - Maria Laurino

When I got the review copy of Were You Always An Italian? Ancestors and Other Icons of Italian America by Maria Laurino,  I was set to trash it.

After all, its cover had a blurb by David "Pasta-Tute of the Year" Chase. He, creator and executive producer of HBO's 'The Sopranos', has set back 40 years the image of Italian-Americans in this country. Thanks to the negative portrayals of Italian-Americans who happen to be gangsters in this cable TV hit show. Other press reports indicated that Chase bought a stack of Laurino's books and issued them to his staff of creative people, so that they might better understand the characters they are writing about.

Boy, now, there's a left handed compliment. The Hollywood hotshot who earns his 30 pieces of silver selling out Italian-American heritage cites a book by a Jersey girl about being Italian American as a valuable resource to the culture.

That just proves you can't judge a book by its cover. And this one is no exception.

In a nutshell, Laurino covers a lot of ground that is common to us. That feeling of being different than non-Italians, and the bewilderment of making sense of our familial slang. The latter attempt to trace word roots is probably one of the most telling insights into understanding our heritage. Laurino took a bag of words to Italy and sought translations, or tried to trace the words to their Italian roots.

In many cases the slang our parents spoke to us (or actually, to each other when they didn't want us to know what they were saying) was mangled from something they or their parents had  brought over from the old world. And due to the history of Italy, giving us northern and southern distinctions, and Sicilian distinctions, the language was fractured throughout the peninsula. It fared no better when it got to America.

Laurino writes in an aside, "Today I can tune in to dialect watching "The Sopranos."

Ah, the dialect. The distinctions led to each village in our homeland having its own virtual language. No wonder Laurino, overhearing a man at a pay phone, questions 'Mamaluke. Or is it spelled mamaluch? Or is spelling irrelevant in an oral language?'

Deciphering the undecipherable, Laurino uncovers the comfort those words represented: What a simple luxury, especially in moments of frustration, to slip into one's peasant tongue, allowing language to transport you to the cozy safety of the past.

Laurino is right on time with this book. As we Italian-American baby boomers encroach middle age a proportionate interest is being spent in our discovering our heritage, family trees and the like for posterity and to settle our own curiosity. Were You Always Italian? is a turning point in our discovery of our familial heritage. Those of us with living parents might have a few more insights to share. And those of us past that, may try to pique the interests of our children in our common past.

This book does have its uncomfortable moments but for the most part imparts an honest, educated look at our heritage from a deep personal interest in finding out who we are, how we got here and what those words all mean. Take comfort in Meneste, tatalles stunod, pizza gain, cafone and citrulo or gedrool!

These words and many other thinking points in Were You Always Italian? provide a good read - if you're Italian or just want to know more about Italian-Americans.

As for this Chase fellow being on the cover, sometimes you've got to give the devil his due. He knows a good book when he sees one.

Were You Always An Italian? by Maria Laurino

Rosa The Life of an Italian Immigrant - Marie Hall Ets

First we need to thank Helen Barolini for resurrecting this precious book from obscurity. And for all those who complain there are no uplifting, inspiring tales about Italians, here in Rosa The Life Of An Italian Immigrant, is the proof that there certainly is.

Rosa would be the first to say she was no one special, just an ordinary peasant orphan who kept herself from starvation and worse by the faith of her religion and incredibly hard work for her entire life. Not that hard work is a surprise but the reality with which this uneducated woman shows us a plain ordinary life is as unforgettable as she is. God gave her the gift to tell the story of her life, to share laughs and to charm her new friends in wherever she landed, in a mining camp, a convent school or a silk factory.

From her early life as a child laborer who is beaten for mistakes in the silk mills of the 1860s to the uneducated young girl who is forced to marry a lousy, drunken bum, Rosa perseveres and triumphs with a long life and many friends who love her. You can't read this story with out falling in love with this precious woman as she endures life.

In 2001, it is hard to imagine that the cruelties Rosa suffered were every day occurrences a century ago (or even less!), that is, nothing unusual. We have come a long way baby, but we had better not forget where we've come from.

Rosa The Life Of An Italian Immigrant will keep you rooted in the reality of our history and ancestry. Buy it, read it. Give it to your friends. Buy them their own copies! Give it as gifts to all the young women in your family.

Rosa's story must be remembered. Her story is unforgettable, so is Rosa Cavalleri.

Hey, Hollywood, I dare you to make a movie about this incredible woman!!!!

ROSA The Life of an Italian Immigrant by Marie Hall Ets

In The Garden Of Papa Santuzzu - Tony Ardizzone

Yeah, this guy's got it. When he describes the dust that passes for soil in the raped Sicilian earth, you choke on the dryness. When the mule joins the army, you laugh. When the letters arrive to the illiterate from the mule who flies across the sky because he can't swim, your heart breaks.

And that's not all. Ardizzone captures the distinct personalities and each of the voices of Papa Santuzzu's children. Feel first hand the strength of the peasant family's belief in the unexplained and mystical. Hey, there's even a miracle or two here - in the most unlikely of places.

And speaking of unlikely places, we could have done without the baker's unusual method to get his dough to rise. Why does an otherwise promising novel that otherwise captures the poverty and despair so richly wind up shooting itself in the foot?

It's hardly the book to recommend to Mom. Or insist that the school and town libraries keep plenty of copies on hand. Well, that's the sad part. It could have been. We could have been shouting from the treetops and bell towers for everyone to read In The Garden of Papa Santuzzu by Tony Ardizzone. Blame it on the baker.

Maybe next time.

In The Garden of Papa Santuzzu by Tony Ardizzone

Altar Boy Chronicles - Tony Pasquarello

All right, Tony Pasquarello says up front that this book is not about Altar Boy pranks, or other mischief that boys get into in his Philadelphia neighborhood.

And for the first 100 pages or so, the author's hindsight and commentary, although annoying, is tolerable, because the writing is crisp and sharp and you think it's going to take you somewhere interesting.

But when Tony hits puberty his urges take over not only the young boy, but this biography as well. Consider it a Portnoy's Complaint with pasta.

And there's the rub, pardon the pun, but how can anyone recommend this book to anyone else? You interested in history, or Italians in Philadelphia? Don't bother with this book - unless you just read the first 100 pages. As for the next 100 pages or so, it's so distracting, you'll lose any insight you might have found in the front of the book.

So, sadly, keep your mind blank and pass on The Altar Boy Chronicles.

The Altar Boy Chronicles by Tony Pasquarello

These reviews were written by Anthony Buccino and published on this web site in 2001.

A complimentary copy of Were You Always An Italian was submitted for review consideration.

All other books reviewed here were purchased.