Pagan Babies : and Other Catholic Memories [Paperback]

Gina Cascone (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 20, 2003

As a child, Gina Cascone would hide under her bed, in the closet, and run away from her parents, hoping somehow to escape her worst fear. But she couldn't hide from the awful truth...

She had to go to Catholic school.

Do nuns have legs? Is Original Sin the "starter sin" for novices? Can the rosary be said in under fifteen minutes? These are some of the questions that vex young Gina Cascone as she makes her way, grade by grade -- and prayer by prayer -- through the rigors of a Catholic education. All the answers can be found in this hilarious classic of childhood foibles: the traumatic first day of school, the dorky plaid uniform complete with matching beanie, glow-in-the-dark rosary beads, first confession trauma, proper dashboard decor ("Cadillacs got Jesus; Oldsmobiles got Mary"), and the race to save the most "pagan babies," who weren't lucky enough to be born Catholic and American.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

During the nine years she spent at St. Lucy's Catholic School, Cascone, a children's author, gathered enough pithy observations and opinions to fill this short memoir. Enrolled against her will (she protested by hiding in a closet, under a bed and behind a sofa, all to no avail), Cascone endured her years at St. Lucy's by imagining what the nuns' legs looked like and other lofty thoughts. Seen through her not-so-impressionable child's eyes, Catholic school was a comedy of contradictions and questionable practices, including baptism, to which she cavalierly refers as throwing water on the non-consenting. Cascone writes with little fondness for praying Rosaries, kneeling through the stations of the cross and adopting "pagan babies," the practice of giving money to foreign missions so non-Catholic children could be raised Catholic. Her sole happy memory appears to be that of Father Joseph, who went easy on children in the confessional and always asked them to say a prayer for him. Given her own experiences, Cascone decides against baptizing her own child, fearing that to raise her daughter Catholic would subject her to the same education her mother had, even though the church has changed radically since her youth. Cascone's irreverent and often funny recollections would surely be pronounced as impertinent by the sisters who taught her. For that, they will delight many readers who underwent Catholic education as reluctantly as she did and considered graduation an escape from earthly purgatory.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

John R. Powers author of the bestselling Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up? Gina Cascone has my vote for patron saint of humor.

Minneapolis Tribune If Woody Allen and Mel Brooks got together to do a script about eight years of Catholic school, the result might be something like Pagan Babies.

Sacramento Bee Delightful...funny, steeped in nostalgia, wisdom, and good humor.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Washington Square Press (May 20, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743453271
• ISBN-13: 978-0743453271
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #815,745 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Gina Cascone, and her sister, Annette Cascone, live in Central New Jersey. Together, they have written over twenty-eight books and two movies. Their books have sold over 2.3 million copies.

Their books include DEADTIME STORIES (Troll), and young adult thrillers, IF HE HOLLERS (Avon), IN A CROOKED LITTLE HOUSE and THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME (both Troll). They have also produced and written numerous treatments and books for children's series packagers. Gina is also the author of two well-received memoirs, PAGAN BABIES AND OTHER CATHOLIC MEMORIES (SMP 1982, WSP 2003) and LIFE AL DENTE: Laughter and Love in an Italian American Family (WSP 2003)

During the publication of the DEADTIME STORIES, the "Twisted Sisters" visited schools for Troll Book Fairs in Boston, New York, New Jersey, Florida, Indiana, Chicago and San Francisco. Gina Cascone is married to literary agent, Roger S. Williams, owner of the Publish or Perish Agency.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars If your sister is a Sister, do not let her read this, November 3, 2003

By 

Peggy Vincent "author and reader" (Oakland, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pagan Babies : and Other Catholic Memories (Paperback)

I had the pleasure of meeting Gina Cascone in SF at Books by the Bay - and she's as engaging and funny in person as she is when she's writing. I didn't go to Catholic schools myself, but all my neighborhood friends did as I was growing up in Cleveland and Chicago - and many of the scenes in Pagan Babies (including the adopting of the pagan babies themselves) ring absolutely true.
Until her most recent book, Life al Dente, Cascone has been a children's author, and that voice comes through in Pagan Babies, which I think high school girls who have at last escaped the clutches of the nuns in their elementary schools could easily relate to. Irreverent to the point of blasphemy, Pagan Babies is a loving if scathing memoir of growing up Catholic.
I thoroughly enjoyed it.

16 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hilarious and accurate depiction of Catholic grade school., September 23, 1997

By 

[e-mail] (Verona, New Jersey) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pagan Babies (Paperback)

Gina Cascone captures the politics of Catholic grade school students and interprets it for the adult it has trained. The result is tear-streaming laughter from chapter to chapter. It is probably the most memorable and loved work of important literature for this alumnus of Holy Cross School, Class of '79.

20 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Amusing but doesn't go far enough, August 19, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Pagan Babies : and Other Catholic Memories (Paperback)

This memoir was very, very funny. Cascone has a way with a phrase and a quick delivery that keeps the book moving along, and her description of her classmates will ring true with readers of all denominations (we've all known the Teacher's Pet, the Rebel, etc.)

It's a bit hard to know how to classify this book, though. On the one hand, it's a very amusing trip down memory lane. On the other hand, it's a hugely one-sided and even somewhat erroneous picture of Catholicism. Cascone recounts her experiences through the eyes of a child, which is effective given the fact that this is a memoir. The problem is that her discussion of the Catholic faith never grows beyond what she knew as a child. The reader sees the religion through the eyes of a child who is being given very extreme, pre-Vatican II instruction. I'm certainly not faulting her for sharing her experiences and her reactions, and I certainly believe that they really happened. But the book is about an adult who, at the end of the story, rejects Catholicism based on a stunted understanding of what the faith really is. Ultimately, I guess it's a good argument in favor of getting to know faith as an adult before deciding to reject it.

In the final analysis, I think this was a very entertaining book, but it certainly doesn't offer anything in the way of real spiritual insight. Don't let it inform your view of Catholicism because there's much more to the religion than you'll find here.