In a richly textured novel set in Utica, New York, during the 1950s, the author of The Edge of Night captures the dreams, conflicts, joys, and sorrows of the colorful inhabitants of an Italian-American community as they try to integrate Old World customs and American culture. 10,000 first printing.
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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
Two slim novels are bound together in this volume written by Frank Lentricchia, a follow-up to his successful debut The Edge of Night. Like his earlier novel, both of these stories are set in Utica, New York, in the 1950s (also the setting of the Lentricchia's own childhood) and are peopled with first- and second-generation Italian-Americans. The writing has much passion and little concern for restraint or subtlety, but what do these characters need with subtlety? They are family, after all, and workers, bosses, and butchers. Plus, some are drunk and tend to be disturbed and upset. The prose lurches forward, intermittently pulling into weigh stations to measure out some honest anger and frustration. The autobiographical elements of Johnny Critelli and The Knifemen are not as explicit as The Edge of Night, though this is a difference of degree and not of kind.
From Publishers Weekly
Drawing on his own upbringing, novelist and critic Lentricchia (The Edge of Night, etc.) has fashioned two short novels that display a rousing capacity for language and a gritty sense of the contemporary male mind. Johnny Critelli ostensibly chronicles the legend of the eponymous character, a mysterious figure in the Italian-American neighborhood of Utica, N.Y., Lentriccia's hometown. Critelli serves only as a jumping-off point for an extended riff on an upstate New York childhood in the 1950s, touching on little league games, hero-worship of Mickey Mantle and Joe DiMaggio, the discovery of sex and, especially, the intense, volatile relationships within an Italian immigrant family?whose members bear the names of the author's own close relatives. This is no meandering, nostalgic memoir, however. Adeptly switching points of view among himself, his father, his mother, even his current girlfriend, Lentricchia wrings drama from the spectacle of family members struggling mightily to understand one another. The narrative generates a sense of urgency that, along with the author's knack for the clever phrase, overcomes a diffuse plot. The second offering, The Knifemen, makes use of the same setting, this time re-imagining it as the breeding ground of Richard Assisi, a gynecologist who devolves into an ice-cold, knife-wielding killer. Here, however, the verbal play is too self-conscious, the numerous sexual and scatological references meaningless. By the end, Lentricchia's techniques undercut the story, making the violence seem more like a gratuitous verbal exercise?daring to talk dirty?than the result of psychological horror it's clearly intended to be.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Not for the faint of heart (or mind, apparently),
By A Customer
This review is from: Johnny Critelli and the Knifemen: Two Novels (Hardcover)
The two compelling novellas that make up this volume trace how the past haunts us, tracks us, shapes us even when we think ourselves beyond it. Lentricchia's probing of his character's memories and personalities is ruthless and brutal, his prose exacting so that it can cut deeper. But despite being immersed in the violent fantasies of the protagonist of "The Knifemen" and the toxic remembrances of "Johnny Critelli," the high quality of these works ultimately makes reading this a cathartic experience. There are also quite a few funny passages that leaven the darkness. Ambitious, lyrical, and moving in its unflinching depiction of people haunted by the very things that keep them alive. Call it a demonology with a heart. Highest recommendation. Also worth seeking out: Lentricchia's next book, "The Music of The Inferno," a savagely funny tour-de-force that re-imagines the historical novel as revenge fantasy, complete with an unforgettable dinner scene that turns "Babette's Feast" on its head.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fun, and then not so fun.,
This review is from: Johnny Critelli and the Knifemen: Two Novels (Hardcover)
"Johnny Critelli" made me feel I got to know Lentricchia just a little bit better, even though a lot of it was not true. What the hay. The reading was fun and then we got to "The Knifemen". And that, my friend, was one big ouch. Lentricchia should be more widely read. We sure would have a smarter country if he was.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Two unforgettable reads under one cover,
By A Customer
This review is from: Johnny Critelli and the Knifemen: Two Novels (Hardcover)
Somehow, this remarkable book slipped under the radar of most reviewers and readers upon release. Do yourself a favor and seek it out immediately! The book collects two novellas which are lyrical, funny, and ultimately very moving. Mr. Lentricchia may have made his name as a critic, but his prose reveals him to be a natural novelist. His writing is clear, vivid, and filled with striking images and phrases. Imagine Joyce circa "Portrait," but filtered through a streetwise New York sensibility and you have an idea of the style. These stories center around Utica, NY, exploring characters who escaped from the decaying city and those who stayed, and the price each paid.Like Joyce's Dublin, Lentricchia's Utica is both a particular city with its own lore and customs and a setting for stories that have a universal resonance. These two tales of memory, loss, and redemption are a pleasure to read--and not easily forgotten.
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