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If
you read
a specific
ten-page chapter
of this "novel"
you would be
mind-numbingly awestruck
by the dealy behavior
of Italian street gangs
in the Bronx
You could easily
repeat that process
with a much shorter chapter
Virtually
everyone in the novel
is from one
of three generations
of Italians
and
ALL of them
speak in the most imitated dialect
that does not involve
black folk
My birthplace
—Hunts Point—
is mentioned
on the third page
and possibly
someone three blocks away
heard me screech
with delight
while reading that page
at 3AM on my
smoke/coffee-stained patio
I know the fuh-getabout-it
speech pattern
more than I care to admit
and I began life as
a third-generation
full-blooded
Italian,
rarely spending a Sunday
with less than
ten family members
and half as many bowls
of delicious pasta
to feed us
YET
only one
of eleven members
of the middle generation
duplicated
that immigrant dialect
as opposed to
other siblings
[Aunt Kay/Aunt Jean]
being mothers of
a paternal cousin
who introduced me to
Ernest Hemingway
+
a maternal cousin
who introduced me to
Catcher In The Rye
One on those cousins
became a very successful
Long Island dentist
and the other
is best remembered
as being verbally assaulted
by Ted Koppel:
my cousin Richard
was the public face
of something called
There is no link for the dentist
because he is alive and well
and still painfully refusing
to correspond with me
But the reason I hate
—author of The Wanderers—
is because that book
reads as-if
all Italian-Americans
have no choice
but to become
murderers, thieves or prostitutes
______________
______________
The two "chapters" mentioned
at the top of this page
are legitimately known as
while the rest of
The Wanderers
is the conjunction of
+
steaming bowls
of spaghetti & meatballs
BUT
the book
sold enough copies
for the author
to presently live
in a five-storey
estate
overlooking
the East River
—Undeniably—
became
a successful movie
______________
______________
Considering
authored words
as give-and-take,
2 good vignettes
does not
a novel make
______________
© Oliverio ©
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