LETTERS FROM ITALY

by Leonard Everett Fisher ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 1977

Angelo Capello, a wealthy Connecticut restaurateur and retired contractor, mourns his bachelor son Vinny, who dies at Anzio after sending home several terse letters on the Italian campaign, and remembers his own grandfather Piero, a fervent Garibaldi supporter. It was Piero who instilled the fire of Italian patriotism in the young Angelo, bore the tirades of grandma--like all the Capello women, more interested in prosperity than honor--and then, paralyzed from an ignominious fall in a swill-covered alley, gave his blessing for the family emigration to America. Though the sentiment is broad, Fisher has an acute eye for details--from the decor of Angelo's restaurant (a reproduction of the Sistine Chapel ceiling was postponed on account of the war) to Piero's staunch pride in the revolution that did him no good personally. But the brief glimpse of Angelo as a confused, idealistic twelve-year-old hardly make this a book for young readers; the tone of generational irony outweighing any of the young Angelo's present dilemmas indicates an older audience.

Pub Date: March 1, 1977

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Four Winds

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1977

Categories: FICTION