THE PIZZA BROTHERS

Mamma mia! These brothers sure are making a mess of their pizza shop.

Three (reddish-skinned, presumably Italian American) siblings run the Pizza Brothers Pizza Shop, and in terms of workload, “everything was fair”: “Alejandro was in charge of the toppings. Antonio kneaded the dough. Paolo did…everything else.” The brothers have a problem (besides the unequal distribution of labor): “Nobody wanted their pizzas!” They agree that they need a gimmick and settle on “the world’s biggest pizza,” and it’s left to Paolo to ask practical questions that his brothers ignore. For instance, how big should the pizza be? And if the enormous pizza contains meat, what will vegetarians eat? Alejandro and Antonio continue to overwork Paolo, so he storms off, and prospective customers boo his brothers’ bizarre culinary creation: a giant pile of on-the-bone meats on a pizza-dough round. When Paolo returns, suddenly his teary-eyed brothers appreciate him: “The shop is a mess without you. Will you come back?” On certain conditions… Readers will likely feel vindicated when there’s finally justice for Paolo, and getting to that point is a pleasure. The book’s unremitting humor largely derives from the contrast between the long-suffering Paolo’s even-keeled personality and the chaos his clueless brothers unleash all around him. The sumptuous-looking acrylics, which appear in supermarket-aisle colors and have impasto surfaces and icing-thick black outlines, look good enough to eat.

A rich and tangy comeuppance story.