Blue Italian - Softcover

Ciresi, Rita

3.34

263 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0385319401 ISBN 13: 9780385319409

Publisher: Delacorte Press Books for Young Readers, 1997

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Skillfully capturing the daily quirks of life in a boisterous, working-class ethnic family--daily assaulted by family clamor, endless courses of food, embarrassment and fierce love-- "Blue Italian" traces the pitfalls of the young life and three-year marriage of a wise-cracking and heart-winning heroine, Rosa Salvatore. With an ear for acid dialogue and an eye for everyday ironies, Ciresi unfolds Rosa Salvatore's tale: growing up on fantasies, guilt, and fagioli in the New Haven working-class Italian neighborhood of Pizza Beach; working her way through a local college by slinging hash, while agonizing over her thighs and aching for passion; landing a job and meeting Gary Fisher, a nice Jewish lawyer from Flushing with a great butt and angst of his own. Rosa and Gary fall in love, make love, get married, fight, make up, fight again--until Gary is diagnosed with a terminal illness, and Rosa realizes the power of her love--and the crushing force of regret.

Frank and warm, crackling with razor-sharp wit, "Blue Italian" is a love story about an ill-fated couple who almost missed realizing how much they loved each other. It establishes Rita Ciresi as a writer with a unique gift for language, character, and emotion--a novelist to read, and a novelist to watch.

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From the Author:

Recent reviews of Blue Italian
Blue Italian traces the three-year marriage of Rosa Salvatore, a wise-cracking heroine from a New Haven working-class family, to Gary Fisher--a nice Jewish lawyer from Flushing with a great butt, a terminal illness, and angst of his own. Confronting such tragic themes as cancer and death, Blue Italian crackles with wit and down-and-dirty details. Through this funny, but ultimately sad story of an ill-fated couple, Ciresi celebrates the extraordinary qualities of ordinary individuals--and shows that memory is a vital force, untameable as the human imagination. What the reviewers have to say about Blue Italian: Library Journal: "This is honest, earthy, warm, and funny --as well as heartbreaking. Highly recommended." Publisher's Weekly: "There is real substance in this tragicomic story of two people with smart mouths and starved hearts groping their way towards a love they don't get much chance to enjoy." Booklist: "A remarkably accomplished debut." New York Times Book Review: "There is a sure hand and a keen eye reporting from both ethnic camps. . . .Ms. Ciresi-- the author of the story collection 'Mother Rocket,' a winner of the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction--gives us parental lunches and trousseau shopping that make us laugh, cringe, and identify all at once."

Synopsis:

Rosa Salvatore, having just buried her husband of only three years, remembers growing up in a working-class Italian neighborhood, attending college, landing a job at a hospital, and meeting a nice Jewish lawyer from Flushing with a terminal illness.

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