Rating: 
Summary: Francesco's Gift
Review: When I picked up "Dances With Luigi", I thought the author would put into writing thoughts that I, as a third generation Italian American would relate to in some wonderfully metaphysical way. I was disappointed.
Firstly, the title has nothing to do with the actual theme of the author's journey. I suppose Mr. Paolicelli intended to interperse his musings with his Umbrian landlord, Luigi, as chapter endings, to further enlighten his findings about his family, and the Italians of the Mezzogiorno region of Italy. But, these revelations do not occur consistently enough to warrant the honor of a title. Luigi, a man living through his own tragedy, merely comes along for the ride and acts only, at times, as Paolicelli's sounding board. I believe that Mr. Paolicelli, as a television journalist, intended to follow New Yorker magazine's Adam Gopnik lead in his 'Paris to the Moon' essays that eventually formulated a bestselling book. This would account for some of the redundance in descriptions and events from chapter to chapter that as individual essays would need the refreshment of repeated explanation.
However, this observation is minor. My main problem with 'Dances With Luigi' is that it succeeds only in telling the story of one specific grandson searching for his grandfather's records; it fails in becoming universally emblematic for all the rest of the third and fourth generation Italian Americans in America who know nothing about their roots in Italy. Paolicelli is lucky that he knew anything about his grandfather's life in Italy; many of us were told nothing. The southern Italians wanting nothing more than freedom from the oppression of the Risorgimento government and the prejudice of the Northern Italians. They wanted a better life and chose a strange place with unfamiliar sights and sounds, in spite of their immense sense of family and tradition, over the repression they knew in their homeland. Paolicelli touches on this a little when he talks about his grandfather's obsession with the needs of his children rather than those of himself. For that generation, as in all other founding American generations, the past was over, the present endured and the future awaited.
I am pleased that Mr. Paolicelli found his grandfather's records, but more so that he found a sense of his future----a future that he speaks of only when he describes his musical triumphs and more concretely in a very small epilogue. I sense he finally understands the unselfishness of these strong people of America's past.
I would have rather heard more about how Paolicelli realized his grandfather's dream, rather than the goings on in a homeland that our grandparents wanted to forget. Perhaps more of the reasons why his family specifically left Italy would have been revealing. The book should have been called Francesco's Gift in honor of his grandfather, who gave him a name, a life without stuggle and a dream for the future.
Nevertheless, I will recommend the book to all Italian Americans that have that itch for understanding.
Rating:
Summary: Francesco's Gift
Review: When I picked up "Dances With Luigi", I thought the author would put into writing thoughts that I, as a third generation Italian American would relate to in some wonderfully metaphysical way. I was disappointed.
Firstly, the title has nothing to do with the actual theme of the author's journey. I suppose Mr. Paolicelli intended to interperse his musings with his Umbrian landlord, Luigi, as chapter endings, to further enlighten his findings about his family, and the Italians of the Mezzogiorno region of Italy. But, these revelations do not occur consistently enough to warrant the honor of a title. Luigi, a man living through his own tragedy, merely comes along for the ride and acts only, at times, as Paolicelli's sounding board. I believe that Mr. Paolicelli, as a television journalist, intended to follow New Yorker magazine's Adam Gopnik lead in his 'Paris to the Moon' essays that eventually formulated a bestselling book. This would account for some of the redundance in descriptions and events from chapter to chapter that as individual essays would need the refreshment of repeated explanation.
However, this observation is minor. My main problem with 'Dances With Luigi' is that it succeeds only in telling the story of one specific grandson searching for his grandfather's records; it fails in becoming universally emblematic for all the rest of the third and fourth generation Italian Americans in America who know nothing about their roots in Italy. Paolicelli is lucky that he knew anything about his grandfather's life in Italy; many of us were told nothing. The southern Italians wanting nothing more than freedom from the oppression of the Risorgimento government and the prejudice of the Northern Italians. They wanted a better life and chose a strange place with unfamiliar sights and sounds, in spite of their immense sense of family and tradition, over the repression they knew in their homeland. Paolicelli touches on this a little when he talks about his grandfather's obsession with the needs of his children rather than those of himself. For that generation, as in all other founding American generations, the past was over, the present endured and the future awaited.
I am pleased that Mr. Paolicelli found his grandfather's records, but more so that he found a sense of his future----a future that he speaks of only when he describes his musical triumphs and more concretely in a very small epilogue. I sense he finally understands the unselfishness of these strong people of America's past.
I would have rather heard more about how Paolicelli realized his grandfather's dream, rather than the goings on in a homeland that our grandparents wanted to forget. Perhaps more of the reasons why his family specifically left Italy would have been revealing. The book should have been called Francesco's Gift in honor of his grandfather, who gave him a name, a life without stuggle and a dream for the future.
Nevertheless, I will recommend the book to all Italian Americans that have that itch for understanding.
|
