The Right Thing to Do
A Novel
Published on 6. December 2018
240 pages
978-1-936932-11-5 (ISBN)
Description
A young Italian American woman struggles to find her way between two cultures in this novel of "familial dignity... credibility and intelligence" (
Kirkus Reviews).
On a stroll in his Queens neighborhood, Sicilian-born Nino Giardello glimpses his daughter, ambitious nineteen-year-old Gina, heading for the subway. Silently, he follows her to Manhattan and watches, outraged, as she walks into the arms of a golden-haired stranger. The incident confirms Nino's worst suspicions about his daughter, whose American lifestyle he sees as an insult to his heritage.
In a struggle that exceeds all boundaries, including death, father and daughter will engage in a conflict of generations, cultures, and sexes. Josephine Gattuso Hendin captures New York Italian immigrant life with startling precision, exploring the intricate web of a community's everyday transactions and the multifaceted father-daughter relationship at the heart of the Italian American family.
A coming-of-age novel that is both wryly funny and achingly sad, " The Right Thing to Do effectively portrays both New York's Italian immigrant milieu and one man's rage at his own powerlessness in the face of his child's hunger for life" ( Booklist).
On a stroll in his Queens neighborhood, Sicilian-born Nino Giardello glimpses his daughter, ambitious nineteen-year-old Gina, heading for the subway. Silently, he follows her to Manhattan and watches, outraged, as she walks into the arms of a golden-haired stranger. The incident confirms Nino's worst suspicions about his daughter, whose American lifestyle he sees as an insult to his heritage.
In a struggle that exceeds all boundaries, including death, father and daughter will engage in a conflict of generations, cultures, and sexes. Josephine Gattuso Hendin captures New York Italian immigrant life with startling precision, exploring the intricate web of a community's everyday transactions and the multifaceted father-daughter relationship at the heart of the Italian American family.
A coming-of-age novel that is both wryly funny and achingly sad, " The Right Thing to Do effectively portrays both New York's Italian immigrant milieu and one man's rage at his own powerlessness in the face of his child's hunger for life" ( Booklist).
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Josephine Gattuso Hendin
The Right Thing to Do
Book
11/1999
Feminist Press at The City University of New York
€13.00
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Person
JOSEPHINE GATTUSO HENDIN, who grew up in Queens and now lives in Manhattan, is professor of English at New York University. A former Guggenheim Fellow, Hendin is the author of many critical works. Her book Vulnerable People: A View of American Fiction Since 1945 was an ALA notable book of the year. MARY JO BONA is assistant professor of Italian American studies at the State University of New York at Stonybrook and author of Claiming a Tradition: Italian-American Women Writers.
Content
- Intro
- Title Page
- Copyright
- Contents
- Chapter One
- Chapter Two
- Chapter Three
- Chapter Four
- Chapter Five
- Chapter Six
- Chapter Seven
- Afterword: Escaping the Ancestral Threat?
