Blue Italian - Hardcover

Recent reviews of Blue Italian
Blue Italian traces the three-year marriage of Rosa Salvatore, a wise-cracking heroine from a New Haven working-class family, to Gary Fisher--a nice Jewish lawyer from Flushing with a great butt, a terminal illness, and angst of his own. Confronting such tragic themes as cancer and death, Blue Italian crackles with wit and down-and-dirty details. Through this funny, but ultimately sad story of an ill-fated couple, Ciresi celebrates the extraordinary qualities of ordinary individuals--and shows that memory is a vital force, untameable as the human imagination. What the reviewers have to say about Blue Italian: Library Journal: "This is honest, earthy, warm, and funny --as well as heartbreaking. Highly recommended." Publisher's Weekly: "There is real substance in this tragicomic story of two people with smart mouths and starved hearts groping their way towards a love they don't get much chance to enjoy." Booklist: "A remarkably accomplished debut." New York Times Book Review: "There is a sure hand and a keen eye reporting from both ethnic camps. . . .Ms. Ciresi-- the author of the story collection 'Mother Rocket,' a winner of the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction--gives us parental lunches and trousseau shopping that make us laugh, cringe, and identify all at once."

Rita Ciresi teaches Creative Writing at Hollins College.