Italian Stories (American Literature)
A collection of stories set in an Italian-American neighborhood before its migration to the suburbs, exploring immigrant memory, family, and the cost of assimilation.
Work Information
An immigrant neighborhood becomes a whole world of memory and loss.
Looking back at the Bronx in the 1930s and 1940s, the book considers the fraying of community and the difficulty of passing it on. It records not only nostalgia but also the pain of assimilation.
Book Information
- Publisher
- Dalkey Archive Press
- Published
- 2002-01-01
- Pages
- 295 pages
- Language
- 英語
- Size
- 14.1 x 2.1 x 21.6 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9781564783066
- ISBN-10
- 1564783065
- Price
- 3023 JPY
- Category
- 洋書/Literature & Fiction/Genre Fiction/Action & Adventure
Paying homage to the Italian-American experience, Italian Stories celebrates an Italian neighbourhood in the Bronx during the 1930s and '40s, and mourns the loss of this ethnic identity with the migration of subsequent generations to the suburbs. With stories that are both melancholy and comic, Papaleo here explores the contradictory desires of assimilation: his characters want to live the life of the average American while maintaining a strong link to their rich heritage. In addition, Papaleo rails against the damaging stereotypes of Italian-Americans propagated by the media in movies and television.
Joseph Papaleo (1925-2004) was an Italian American novelist, and academic. He grew up in The Bronx. He graduated from Sarah Lawrence College, from Columbia University with an M.A., and from the University of Florence with a Ph.D.
Reviews
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Meh
Not very good, in my opinion.