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Italian American Writers On New Jersey
An Anthology of Poetry and Prose
by Jennifer Gillan, Maria
Mazziotti Gillan, and Edvige Giunta
Anthology of Pleasant Surprises
Book Review
by
Anthony Buccino
You
might expect a book put together by three professors to be boring, pompous
and dull - but Italian American Writers On New Jersey, edited by Jennifer
Gillan, Maria Mazziotti Gillan and Edvige Giunta, exceeds expectations.
It's enlightening, enlivening and thought-provoking.
Great literature reminds you of where you've come from.
Here, the bitter and the sweet in poetry and prose maps the past and
transitions to where we stand today, in New Jersey and across America.
This anthology crisscrosses the state from Ocean City to Greenwood Lake and
Jersey City to Trenton.
Some writers may be familiar to you, and others brand new. (Many will strike
you as worth the time to scrounge out long lost copies of their work.)
For instance, Combat Zones by Louise DeSalvo is not your typical Italian
American remembrance - but much of it is the mystery about relations - the
father's piecemeal labor and kitten-drowning - all hit close to home. And
it's only the second page.
Throughout are many most-interesting stops in between at Short Hills,
Paterson, Seaside Heights and Hillsdale. But you might be bewildered when
you seek out Arlington and Cranwood and West Plains.
You see, this anthology of poetry and prose doesn't discern the fiction from
the nonfiction.
As if Pietro di Donato's Hoboken: Three Circles of Light would be classified
as something that is so real it couldn't be fiction. Or Bill Ervolino's
Wood-Ridge could be anything but completely true.
This book appeals not only to Italian Americans in New Jersey, but to IA's
named Smith in Nutley, as well as Gustafson in Ashtabula, Ohio.
Here, the tip of the iceberg, is a good place to learn of one's heritage and
to capture the common experience we've had to get where we are today.
This cross section of Italian American writers, the New Jersey who's who
among contributors, is a great place to start your private Italian American
library, your legacy for your descendents.
This collection presents a commonality that had lain dormant in stories that
were scattered.
My only peeve is that in a few instances Italian is used without
translation. That, too, reminds me of growing up Italian American in New
Jersey.
Some day, every state will wish it had Italian American writers telling its
tales in poetry and prose. For now, it's time to read this one and join the
call for another volume.
Review was written by Anthony Buccino and
published on this web site in 2005.
A complimentary copy was submitted for review consideration.
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