by Raffaela Marie Rizzo ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 22, 2015
A heartwarming amalgam of personal fact, fiction, and history.
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An affecting tale of an Italian immigrant’s struggle to make a life for himself in the United States.
After the unification of Italy brought with it a wave of economic distress, Michelangelo’s father traveled to America twice, looking for a way to support his family. Despite his success on his first trip, even more dire straits, and the urging of his wife prompted him to return a second time. He had a heart attack while overseas and never saw his family again. Protagonist Michelangelo inherited his father’s curiosity and wanderlust and longed to visit his grave, located in Connecticut. In 1909, he finally disembarks for the United States, and immediately learns what his father learned: that this land of opportunity can also be an unforgiving, dangerous place. Undaunted, he finds work in Pennsylvania at a steel mill and then a job on a building project in Ohio before finally setting off for Connecticut, where he has some family. There, he starts to lay down roots. He marries a woman he adores, has four daughters, and buys a home. He suffers a terrible accident while chopping wood, however, which results in the amputation of his arm and leaves him nearly unable to find work. Also, after nine years of marriage, his wife suddenly dies, leaving him without any help raising his children. The state threatens to take his children away if he proves unable to quickly find a means to care for them. In her first book, author Rizzo creates a seamless blend of fiction and nonfiction, largely based on conversations with her family and friends, creating a memoirlike novel. The abiding themes are Michelangelo’s virtuous indomitability and his transformation from Italian day laborer to Italian-American, or from Michelangelo to Mike. His allegiance to the U.S. comes through most clearly during World War II: “Mike was an American. He cried as many nights as he had prayed for his cousins and remnant family in Italy.” This is a touching, refreshing reminder of how much prosperity can spring from a generous spirit.
A heartwarming amalgam of personal fact, fiction, and history.Pub Date: Sept. 22, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-9966687-0-5
Page Count: 358
Publisher: Giro Di Mondo
Review Posted Online: Oct. 5, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by J.D. Salinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1951
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2006
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
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