COME BACK TO SORRENTO

Another entry, from Atlantic and Collier's in the ""new-Americans"" series, this tells the story of the Espositos. Papa works on the Brooklyn docks and saves his money in a boot so he can go back to Sorrento and buy land for an olive grove. ...that is, before he meets Mama and falls a victim to her lasagna and her eloquent desire to stay in America. His chances of returning to Italy become slimmer after their marriage for first there is Mama's father, Nonno, to be taken care of and then the babies begin coming -- five of them, one at a time. Papa ends by taking out his first citizenship papers in order to vote for Al Smith, a fellow Catholic. Full of homey, and homely, little incidents and domestic chaos, this mirrors believable people in all their excitements, adjustments, early loneliness and eventual adoption in pleasant fashion.