She isn't ready. After more than thirty years Gia Scarpino, a successful West Coast lawyer, must go back to the small Pennsylvania coal town of her youth to care for her dying uncle Tony, the beloved man who raised her. But Tony isn't the only one waiting for her. There, too, are the once-inseparable friends she left behind, including Willie, the sexy priest who was her first love; Yozo, the class runt turned rich enterpreneur; and her best girlfriend, Barbara, an alcoholic caught in a dead marriage.At first it's like nothing has changed. but as the excitement of their reunion begins to fade, Gia sees that none of them--including herself--are what they seem. Beneath the surface lie the resentment, anger, and denial that have haunted them all. To unite once more, they must face the pain of the past and rediscover the bonds of love that once connected them--a tie Gia desperately needs to help her say good-bye one last time.
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Book Description
You Can Go Home Again
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
When Gia Scarpino left home for college, she and her three best friends, Barbara Arminavage, Yozo Walenticonis, and Willie Cunningham, promised to remain close. In high school, the four had been inseparable; Barbara, an optimistic dreamer, Yozo, the class underachiever, and Willie, Gia's first love. But Gia never returned, and their friendships withered. Now, 35 years later, Gia comes home to see her terminally ill Uncle Tony--and for the chance to reunite with old friends.
Though Gia is no longer the girl she once was, she is surprised by the changes in her friends. Yozo has formed an intimate friendship with Uncle Tony and is a wealthy and respected entrepreneur. Barbara has destroyed herself and her family with alcohol; while Willie, who had spent years holding on to hope for Gia's return, has become a priest. As the euphoria of their reunion wears off, the friends face the grim reality of their personal failures and the dangerous consequences of the dormant passions that linger between them.
Dust off your catechism, dig up your pasta machine, and prepare to be completely enveloped in the Italian Catholic culture of Annette Appollo's The Last One Home. Appollo's carefully developed characters and authentic touches bring this world to life, where quirky details and surreal moments prevent the danger of suffocation by nostalgia--and some predictable and not-so-predictable twists capture the reader's attention and heart. --Nancy R.E. O'Brien --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
Gia Scarpino, a middle-aged lawyer, returns to the Pennsylvania coal town of her childhood to see her dying Uncle Tony, who raised her. During her weeklong visit, Gia catches up with her high school friends: Willie, her onetime sweetheart, now a handsome Jesuit priest; Yozo, a wise-cracking entrepreneur; and Barbara, an alcoholic trapped in a loveless marriage. As Tony fades, Gia and friends reminisce and revisit the hangouts of their youth. Willie must wrestle with his conscience and the demands of his vocation when he realizes that he has never stopped loving Gia. Meanwhile, as Gia comes to terms with losing Uncle Tony, her aunts, Tony's sisters, must come to terms with her. Everyone must come to terms with Tony's vague Mafia connections, and readers must reconcile to a bevy of sideswipes at the church, including nuns who beat children and a priest who has sex in a graveyard. Appollo's first novel aspires at once to pathos, psychology, ethnography and political argument: it seeks to move readers with Gia's troubles, explain and explore the folkways of an Italian-American family, reflect lyrically on the passage of the time and the meanings of death, and to attack organized religion. But the subplots and meanings get in one another's way, and no single character emerges with a rich personal history. An improbable happy ending can't save it.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Portentous, fraught with non-meaning, over-wrought,,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Last One Home: A Novel (Hardcover)
Populated by one-dimensional characters, who seem always to be "over-the-top" (can't they just talk to each other once in a while, as most people do, instead of operating constantly in some kind of emotional hyperdrive?) It is so mushily sentimental and portentous that I think Ms Appollo may very well get rich (think "The Bridges of Madison County," think "Love Story"), with a smash movie, visits to the talk shows, etc. (I imagine that both "Bridges" and "Love Story" got mostly one-star and five-star reactions too.) I think I learned more about Ms. Appollo in reading this obviously autobiographical novel than I could possibly have learned about her characters, who work so frantically to figure out what life is all about...and, in the end, fail to present us with anything that is really TRUE about life, because in reality they are simply not alive in any sense of the word. Much as I admire and want to give credit and praise to anyone who will do the hard work that's involved in writing and getting published ANY novel, I still have to say that this is, simply, a bad book.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
TRITE TRITE TRITE,
By Lise McCleerey (Kirkland, WA United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Last One Home (Mass Market Paperback)
I've gotta say that I was really looking forward to reading this book as a close friend of mine is really great friends with the author. I was horrified to find that this book I'd really looked forward to was just awful! Swearing, drinking, "almost got some" priests??? Sheesh. The main character is prickly to the point that you wish it was her, not her uncle, on her last legs. Yes, there were some touching moments in it toward the end if you could dredge that far through it... But I also slow down and check out car accidents while driving by... I do realize that this is the authors first novel, but could someone have at least had the courtesy to explain to her what run on sentences are, and more importantly how to avoid them?? If you don't believe me, just check out the back cover -- it's just one HUGE run on. To anyone that's actually finished this book like i did still hoping beyond hope it'd get better, stand up and cheer for yourself! You've accomplished a mighty feat.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The best book I have read in too many years.,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Last One Home: A Novel (Hardcover)
As a 73 year old woman, I don't enjoy reading many of today's books because they lack original thought, are predictable, and downright boring. This book captivated me from the cover alone and, once I began reading it, I couldn't put it down. I was so impressed with the way the author writes. She has a style I haven't ever experienced before. She writes as if you are actually there with her...as people speak, as people feel. The story brought back so many of my own memories. Flashbacks of my own high school days, friends, fun times, sad times. Gifts that I thought I had lost forever rekindled by one woman's great mind for storytelling. Because of this book, I was prompted to call my old friends. I wanted to tell them to get this book and savor it as it is our story the author tells. I am sure this will be true for so many people. Take this book and let it remind you that, indeed, you can go home again...if only in your heart and soul.
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