Growing Up Italian: How Being Brought Up As an Italian-American Helped Shape the Characters, Lives, and Fortunes of Twenty-Four Celebrated Americans (Paperback)

~ Linda Brandi Cateura (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

This book consists of 24 memoirs taken from personal interviews with some well-known Americans of Italian heritage, such as Mario Cuomo, Yogi Berra, John Ciardi, Rudolph Giuliani, Tony Bennett, and Geraldine Ferraro. In first-person narratives of varying quality they remember family, church, school, grandparents, neighborhoods, and other influences. Like so many successful people, however, their childhoods were often atypical, and it is not clear whether being Italian-American had anything to do with their ultimately successful careers. Over and over, pride of heritage is expressed. In all but a few cases the remarks are not well thought out. In the important area of new roles for women this is especially disappointing, as is the lack of a bibliography. Even with these limitations the book will have readers in most public libraries. Priscilla E. Pratt, York Coll. Lib., CUNY
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: William Morrow & Co (July 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0688079520
• ISBN-13: 978-0688079529
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,632,215 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Growing Up Italian, April 27, 2000

By	"rosalor" (Philadelphia, PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Growing Up Italian: How Being Brought Up As an Italian-American Helped Shape the Characters, Lives and Fortunes of Twenty-Four Celebrated Americans (Hardcover)

I bought this book in hardcover when it first came out. I simply love it. The essays by famous Italian-Americans are concise, yet filled with lovely anecdotes and things all Italian-Americans can relate to. Two of my adult children have recently discovered it and also loved learning a little about their heritage and more about how their mother grew up.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Still interesting and relevent ten years after publishing, October 3, 1998

By A Customer

So many of these short biographies were familiar to my growing up as a 2nd generation Italian --and at the same time different. The varied experiences due to time, place and background give lie to the south of Italy stereotypes. Also interesting were the varied perceptions of these people as they grew up as to minority status vs. pride of ancestry. Would like to see update on these people and others. A fine job but would have liked longer pieces with more detail--oh, well, don't we always