Book Review: Benjamin Nelson, Professor Emeritus, Fairleigh Dickinson U
A Sicilian-American Comedy by Joseph J. Corso, Jr.
Legas Press 2015
I have just finished reading a quirky, noisy, funny, sad, dark, and dazzlingly bright novel called A Sicilian-American Comedy by Joseph Corso.
I did not notice a kitchen sink in it, but that was just about the only thing missing.
Although he has a Masters Degree in English to his credit, Mr. Corso is truly an autodidact (look it up!), and his knowledge and experiences are lavishly scattered throughout this narrative, which comes close to bursting at the seams, but manages to skip, hop, lurch, and finally step firmly to the triumphant final line.
A Sicilian-American Comedy embraces four generations of a family that is comprised of some of the most vivid characters you will meet. It begins with a third-person narrator, introducing the reader to a small-town Sicilian family and then segues into the voice of the first-person narrator, Jerome, the son of Girolamu, and grandson of Pippinu, - who becomes the protagonist of the tale. Most of his life is set in the United States. I’ve listed three males, but important as they are, they’re no more important than the females who match them in vivacity, determination, and passion, and perhaps exceed them in wisdom, valor, and a profound capacity for love.
Cignu Russu, Sonia, Rachel, and Marta, just to name a few, are multi-dimensional characters who stand out in a tapestry of fascinating figures and gripping sequences.
While the family saga sprawls across more than a century, more or less chronologically, it also skips back and forth in time and focuses not only on the central narrative, but on the changing societal and cultural scene. The narrator, often halts the narrative to present historical figures, films, poems, songs, and musings, all of which provide a pastiche that is not only entertaining, but ultimately thematically relevant.
And themes are not scarce. While the novel paints a vivid portrait of an extended family it also deals with the elements and issues that make the family so universal in the very context of their specificity. It is simultaneously a work of terror and tenderness, tragedy and humor.
Corso paints powerful portraits of sexual conflict, clashing loyalties, ingrained prejudices, and the ongoing conundrum of tradition vs. modernity.
Perhaps, more than anything else, A Sicilian-American Comedy is a love story. And unlike the song by June Caroll and Arthur Siegel, it does not view love as a simple thing. It can be cruel, misguided, selfish. It can be tender, compassionate, and indeed life-affirming. In this cornucopia of a novel, it is all of the above.
Don’t read this book, however, for only what it is about. Read it for what it is: namely, to cite Ernest Hemingway, “a moveable feast.”
Mangia, Mangia!
It’s not only good for you, it’s delicious as well.
What a satisfying thing it is!
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