Sometimes I Dream in Italian [Paperback]

Rita Ciresi (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 6, 2001

Angel Lupo grew up in a traditional Italian home — an exclusive club where Mama’s word was everything ... and where nice girls saved themselves for marriage. All Angel wanted was to be movie-star blond, change her name, and get as much attention as her prettier older sister Lina.

Now Angel is nearing thirty, penning Catholic greeting cards for a living, and still jealous of her sister, who has a house in the suburbs, two kids, and a husband who loves her. So Angel does the next best thing: She answers a personal ad.

Dirk Diederhoff is blond, teaches at Vassar, and is definitely not Italian. Nor is he the thrill-a-minute lover and soul mate Angel prays for. But as Lina, recklessly embarked on an affair of her own, would tell her: There are no perfect tens out there — only men who want you to talk to them in Italian during sex.

The award-winning author of Pink Slip gets the rituals and rhythms of domestic life just right in Sometimes I Dream in Italian, a bittersweet comedy about sisters, lovers, and a family that doesn’t quite translate.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In her novels Pink Slip and Blue Italian, Cirisi established herself as a resonant voice chronicling the lives of Italian-Americans. In this wry, charming second story collection, the recurrent character is Angelina Lupo, a daughter of Italian-American immigrant parents, who grows up in '60s and '70s New Haven, Conn. For Angel, life is rife with contradictions: strong family ties also means having her hands bound behind her back, as her overbearing mother attempts to keep her two daughters obedient and tractable. In "Big Heart" and "La Stella D'Oro," a prepubescent Angel learns the price some people pay for challenging tradition. "Babbo," Angel's father, is a hardworking soda-pop deliveryman who is too tired to pay much attention to Angel or her beautiful older sister, Lina, who is not afraid to rebel. Angel's admiration for and loyalty to her sister puts the younger girl in a bind during adolescence, when she becomes a kind of mediator in the conflicted family, afraid to hurt or anger her parents, but eager for Lina's approval. Each of these 12 linked stories offers new insight into Angel's difficult reckoning with her mixed feelings and her colorful family and heritage. Narratives told from the perspective of an adult Angel show her with Lina waxing nostalgic about their childhood while reluctantly taking on the roles of caretakers to their aging and ailing parent , and coming to terms with their own ambitions after the older generation dies. Angel is an immensely likable character whose self-deprecating and humorous reflections on family, men and careers is paired with imagery that deftly evokes all five senses. One doesn't have to be Italian to relate to Angel; she represents any contemporary woman poised between the values of her parents' generation and her own burgeoning sense of self.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

Ciresi's Pink Slip was definitely a fun read, but here the author shows her serious side. Each chapter covers a different period in the lives of two Italian American sisters, Angel and Lina. Starting with their childhood embarrassment at their immigrant parents, Ciresi captures perfectly life in a New York Italian American enclave. We follow Angel and Lina through their youth and into adulthood. Lina's teenage pregnancy leads her into an unhappy yet prosperous marriage. Angel has an uninspired job writing Catholic greeting cards yet dreams of the house and kids that her sister has. As Angel begins a serious relationship with a man she met though the personal ads, she is forced to confront her dreams head on. Will she marry a man who does not really make her happy in order to taste a slice of her sister's domestic life? A stirring novel about the pull of the past and the force of the future, this work is recommended for public libraries.
-DBeth Gibbs, Davidson, NC
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Delta (November 6, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 038533494X
• ISBN-13: 978-0385334945
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.6 x 8.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,060,538 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Rita Ciresi is the author of four award-winning novels and two short-story collections. Visit her website at www.ritaciresi.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Funny and poignant; a great collection, December 10, 2001

By 

Dianna Johnston "Compulsive Reader" (Joplin, MO) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Sometimes I Dream in Italian (Paperback)

Rita Ciresi just gets better every time I read her. I started with Pink Slip, which did not impress me very well. Then on to Blue Italian, which blew me away. And now with Sometimes I Dream in Italian, a book of connected short stories about the Italian Lupo family, I believe Ms. Ciresi has reached her pinnacle. Definitely a book not to be missed.

Told through the eyes of the youngest Lupo daughter, Angel, the first half of the book documents her childhood with her beautiful, better sister, Lina, and their two strange and boring parents. Growing up in New Haven, Connecticut, life couldn't be more stagnant. Angel and Lina both long to rid themselves of their Italian heritage and be buxom and blonde Hollywood movie stars dripping with diamonds. Instead they are stuck in an old-fashioned time-warp with a mother who quite possibly could be the World's Most Prepared and a father who is nothing more than a measly soda delivery man with stinky feet. The second half of the book flash-forwards to Angel's and Lina's adulthood. It is interesting to see how the two girls grew up and branched out in different directions. Although, behind the normalcy, there is pain and heartache.

Sometimes I Dream in Italian explores the intricate relationship between the two sisters, their family, and their dreams. At times hilarious, yet heartwrenching and poignant, these stories will draw emotions out of you as only good writing can do. Nice flow and beautifully written. Looking forward to reading more Ciresi -- she has now become a favorite.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Life in an Italian-American Household, October 23, 2000

By 

Patricia Bender (Philadelphia, PA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Sometimes I Dream in Italian (Hardcover)

Growing up in an Italian-American household is described in this book in very humorous yet poignant vignettes. Angel and Lina Lupo are sisters whose overbearing Italian immigrant parents have dominated every aspect of their lives from the food they eat to the clothes they wear to the men they date. Angel, the more introspective sister, lives vicariously through Lina, the prettier, more popular sister. Both rebel openly and sarcastically against their parents, often causing them to be punished together. Descriptions of their house, their daily lives, their relatives, and their escapades are often uproariously funny, yet at the same time, somewhat tragic, reflecting impossible expectations of parents who were brought up differently. Italian-American baby boomers will certainly relate to the Lupo sisters.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An honest, beautiful, compelling collection, January 16, 2001

By 

Debbie Lee Wesselmann (the Lehigh Valley, PA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Sometimes I Dream in Italian (Hardcover)

Rita Ciresi's talent as a writer of short stories is no more evident than in this collection, where her stories sing with language and emotion and details so realistic that you'll believe every sentence.

SOMETIMES I DREAM IN ITALIAN is divided into two sections: Ragazza-Girl and Donna-Woman. Within each section, we are treated to the awkward life of Angel, who struggles to reconcile her origins with her present self - and her imagined future self. Her Italian immigrant parents embarrass her and her sister Lina with their Old World ways and names. The girls just want to become glamorous, with underwear they'll throw out after one wearing and diamonds dripping from their necks. But their mother refuses to let them forget where they came from. As the two girls grow into disappointed women, with dreams they've had to adjust, Angel says (of German grammar, but it applies to her life), "I could not tell the who from the how and the where from the why." While I was reading this collection, I often laughed out loud, but, just as often, I felt the sorrow between the words.

Although this book portrays an Italian-American family, you don't need to have interest in this American subculture to enjoy it. Ciresi's detailed description of these lives is so beautifully rendered that the humanity shows through the smallest gesture. This book is ultimately about family and its bonds, both liberating and restrictive. And about the dreams we have for ourselves.