In Revere, in Those Days: A Novel - Hardcover

Merullo, Roland

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0609610325 ISBN 13: 9780609610329

Publisher: Crown Pub, 2002

Synopsis

Anthony Benedetto, a young boy in a large extended Italian-American family, describes growing up in the working-class community of Revere, Massachusetts, but his idyllic and charmed youth is changed forever by the tragic deaths of his parents, in a coming-of-age story. 25,000 first printing.

About this title

About the Author

Roland Merullo is a graduate of Phillips Exeter Academy and Brown University. He has written forNewsweek, Forbes FYI, the New York Times, the Boston Globe, thePhiladelphia Inquirer, and many other publications. He is the author of three previous, highly praised novels, the most recent of which,Revere Beach Boulevard, was a finalist for the L. L. Winship/PEN New England Award. He lives with his wife and two children in western Massachusetts.

From the Inside Flap

This is the story of the Benedetto family, hardworking Italian Americans from Revere, Massachusetts, a small city on the coastline just north of Boston. Anthony Benedetto is our narrator introspective and colorful a smart, good kid born in this country who is trying to figure out how to reconcile his family s rich, old-world heritage with the unstoppable freight train that is America and American culture.

What Anthony creates for us is an unspoiled America of forty years ago: the feeling of being part of an extended family of grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins; the feeling of being surrounded by an intense loyalty and vibrant warmth that extend into the neighborhood and the community. Fixing place, time, and sensibilities with uncanny accuracy and grace, Anthony introduces us to unforgettable men and women who struggle toward decency and kindness, and who live out their difficult lives with an extraordinary dignity.

When Anthony s parents are tragically killed, the Benedetto family pulls him out of the swamp of despair with a desperate, old-world love. As the New World calls to him, he gradually grows up and away from Revere but finds that it is as much a part of him as his eye color and the size of his hands. His eventual realizations that geography is destiny, that suffering is universal, and that he is able to pass on, to his own children, the priceless Benedetto inheritance of warmth and caring form the essence of who he becomes as a man.

The Benedetto family s story, a tale of sorrow, hope, and redemption, gives us a lost America and a fading Italian American culture that lie beyond the clichés. In Revere, In Those Days is a hauntingly beautiful novel by a graceful and extremely talented writer.

Edition details

• Publisher: Crown Pub
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0609610325
• ISBN 13: 9780609610329
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 302