Описание: Papa, a baby boomer, leaves a book of creative short stories for his present and future descendants on life during the second half of the twentieth century. Each trip back in time is a stand-alone memoir based in truth, laced with imagination, and ends in some reflection and perspective. This grandfather takes the reader on a journey from growing up in a vibrant, ethnic neighborhood in Clevelands inner city, through an extraordinary adolescence, to raising his own family in the suburbs.
Excerpts:
... Italians have this extraordinary reaction to drama and tragedy. They get angry before they can show compassion. Im sure it has everything to do with the initial adrenaline rush, but I learned to wait it out since it never lasted long. I knew doting would soon follow. It always did, and its no wonder that I now exhibit this same trait as an adult.
... We had a saying in my old Italian neighborhood. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, Ill kick your ass.
... This was no church club of boys I was joining. It was a gang of boys who just happened to be in a church club. And I wanted in
... I stopped behind my cousin with my heart pounding in my chest, and rightfully so. Getting my ass kicked was not on this evenings agenda. I remained silent as the situation deteriorated in front of me.
... Ordinarily, I cringe whenever I hear my non-Italian friends are serving me their homemade pasta - only because my family has been cooking sauce every Sunday since the invention of the tomato.
... He stood there motionless for a moment as if he were making an important decision. Here, take this, he said, and then shoved something into my hand. I looked down at what I was holding. It was a blue steel handgun.
