AND THERE WERE RED GERANIUMS EVERYWHERE
~~ an anthology of Italian American women writers ~~
Published first in Italy and now available in English, And There Were Red Geraniums Everywhere, explores the roots, language, food, travels and stories of sixteen Italian American authors from the Italian diaspora in North America. Full of honest, visceral, sometimes painful, often funny, and occasionally heart-breaking, this migration history will delight any reader.
"Gail Reitano, great-granddaughter of an immigrant from Avelino who 'smelled of garlic and earth,' recalls when she and her father devoured a dish of freshly caught frogs, after skinning them alive. With exquisite attention to nuance, Reitano remembers prejudices in southern New Jersey in the 1920s and beyond, within an affluent Italian American community. The prejudice came from outside but also from within: 'Italian Americans liked to heap [prejudices] on one another, for being farmers, for being considered not quite white and therefore second-class citizens.'" Ilaria Serra ~ Emanuele Pettener
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"According to Dad the frogs had to be skinned alive. But after watching him skin the first two, I had to go into the house. I quaked at that hasty slice across the frog's middle, then clear around its back like halving a peach, and how Dad's strong hands with the sprouting black hairs, pulled the skin down in one great coat. The frogs twitched the whole time, until their lower halves hung denuded and gray."
Gail Reitano, And There Were Red Geraniums Everywhere
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In any good stew, the ingredients must be broken down, but what happens when those ingredients are human beings? Italians who were brought here as children, or who lived through one or two generations in the great American "melting" pot, have found themselves in various states of decomposition. This anthology captures the thoughts and feelings of those in the process of assimilation, and points to the indisputable truth that America continues to benefit from the labor and culture of each successive group, while continuing to stir that stew pot.
