It is the summer of 1982, just before the fall. The political campaign ad of It's Morning in America has not yet aired, but the present era of cultural hedonism has already dawned. Against this backdrop, Edward Bennett is the All-American son of a mother who emigrated from Italy and a first-generation Italian American father. Edward has it all: good looks, pedigree, and the financial fruits of his father's business empire. As he readies for his junior year abroad in London, however, something feels amiss. He does not understand the overprotectiveness of his mother, Marie. He vows to solve the puzzle by finding her native town in southern Italy that she herself has refused to revisit. Ultimately, the journey triggers Marie's suppressed memory of her cruel beginning, which she and her family can either confront or continue to deny.
Iron Butterfly is the second installment of The Mezzogiorno Trilogy. The series recounts the upwardly mobile odyssey of a fictional New American family in the 1980s, the Bennetts. Iron Butterfly precedes in its entirety the already critically acclaimed The Autumn Crush, the saga of the arraignment and capital murder trial of Edward's father, due to be re-released in 2022. The third in the trilogy, Sarapiquí, will be launched in 2023, telling the story of how in the wake of his father's trial, Edward inherits a cattle ranch in the rainforests of Costa Rica where he struggles with his fidelity and his faith.
As a postscript to Iron Butterfly, the reader is treated to a third-party commentary that psychoanalyzes what the work reveals about the author.
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978-1-953789-03-7 (9781953789037)
Schweitzer Klassifikation
Andrew Eustace Anselmi was born in Livingston, New Jersey in 1965 to a household rooted in Italian-American ways.¿ He has worked as an attorney in private practice for thirty years, during which time he has received extensive praise for his work in complex litigation and recognized for his charitable works.¿ In 2017, Pope Francis bestowed upon him the title of¿Knight of the Order of St. Gregory the Great.¿
Drawing upon his career and experiences as a husband, son, and father, he has become a novelist. He seeks to have his readers travel with him the yet undiscovered terrain of the twentieth century American Dream, and the untold costs of an otherwise glorified voyage. His Mezzogiorno Trilogy tracks a fictional Italian-American family, the Bennetts, through the cultural conflicts and hedonism of the 1980s and 90s. The center point of the series is The Autumn Crush, his debut novel that will be republished by Level Best as the second installment. It is a murder mystery for which young Edward Bennett takes up the legal defense for his business titan father, recounting the first generation family's odyssey to attain wealth, social distinction, and political power in a dizzying American present, while at once masking and celebrating Old World traditions.¿ Iron Butterfly is a prequel that is a mystery of a different kind, weaving together a delicate past and present by exploring the functions of storytelling in crafting family identity. This time, however, Anselmi brings this dynamic into bold relief by having Edward break the fifty year silence of his mother to reveal the suppressed details of her childhood in wartime Italy. This novel also includes a psychoanalytic commentary by a third party whose identity will surprise the reader. Sarapiquí will be the last in the trilogy, depicting the existential struggles of a disillusioned Edward who, after his father's trial in The Autumn Crush, accepts an invitation for exile in the jungles of¿ Costa Rica.
Andrew currently lives in Chester, New Jersey with his wife Soledad. They are the proud and loving parents of Gabrielle, Luke and Nicholas.
