5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Real Italian Americans of New Jersey, December 5, 2003
By A Customer
This review is from: Italian American Writers on New Jersey: An Anthology of Poetry and Prose (Hardcover)
I have just finished reading Italian American Writers on New Jersey, an amazing collection of works--works previously almost entirely unknown to me, yet in their themes as familiar to me as my own face. The anthology teems with people and places from the past and present; people and places that, despite their imperfections, I remember and revere; people and places who have never before, I think, been given such broad and fair-minded treatment. As I read each page, I laughed, I cried, I winced at the marvelously crafted stories they told. I wanted the book to go on forever. For many years I've heard that in professional publishing circles Italian-themed works are discouraged because "Italians don't read." Thank you to the three editors, and to Rutgers University Press, for proving that Italians certainly can write.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Anthology of Pleasant Surprises, October 14, 2005
You might expect a book put together by three professors to be boring, pompous and dull - but Italian American Writers On New Jersey, edited by Jennifer Gillan, Maria Mazziotti Gillan and Edvige Giunta, exceeds expectations.
It's enlightening, enlivening and thought-provoking.
Great literature reminds you of where you've come from.
Here, the bitter and the sweet in poetry and prose maps the past and transitions to where we stand today, in New Jersey and across America.
This anthology crisscrosses the state from Ocean City to Greenwood Lake and Jersey City to Trenton.
Some writers may be familiar to you, and others brand new. (Many will strike you as worth the time to scounge out long lost copies of their work.)
For instance, Combat Zones by Louise DeSalvo is not your typical Italian American remembrance - but much of it is the mystery about relations - the father's piecemeal labor and kitten-drowning - all hit close to home. And it's only the second page.
Throughout are many most-interesting stops in between at Short Hills, Paterson, Seaside Heights and Hillsdale. But you might be bewildered when you seek out Arlington and Cranwood and West Plains.
You see, this anthology of poetry and prose doesn't discern the fiction from the nonfiction.
As if Pietro di Donato's Hoboken: Three Circles of Light would be classified as something that is so real it couldn't be fiction. Or Bill Ervolino's Wood-Ridge could be anything but completely true.
This book appeals not only to Italian American in New Jersey, but to IA's named Gustafson in Ashtabula, Ohio, as well as Smith in Nutley.
Here, the tip of the iceberg, is a good place to learn of one's heritage and to capture the common experience we've had to get where we are today.
This cross section of Italian American writers, the New Jersey who's who among contributors, is a great place to start your private Italian American library, your legacy for your descendents.
This collection presents a commonality that had lain dormant in stories that were scattered.
My only peeve is that in a few instances Italian is used without translation. That, too, reminds me of growing up Italian American in New Jersey.
Some day, every state will wish it had Italian American writers telling its tales in poetry and prose. For now, it's time to read this one and join the call for another volume.
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