Items related to Unto The Sons
Bestselling writer Gay Talese uses his own family history to tell the epic story of an Italian family over three generations. Moving from a tiny feudal village in southern Italy to the battlefields of the First World War, to Paris in the 1920s, and finally to the promised land of America, Unto the Sons is a brilliant mixture of history and story-telling.
Talse carries us into the nineteenth- century patriarchal world of his great-grandfather in the village of Maida (after which London's Maida Vale was named) - a region immersed in the mysticism of the Church and haunted by echoes of Roman glory and the subsequent waves of foreign invasion. His story moves from Italy to America and back again as it follows the men of the village, among them the author's grandfather. Their half-lives in a Pennsylvania factory town are vividly evoked, as are their infrequent reunions with their wives, the fabled "white widows" left behind in Italy, who summon up the passion to make a place for themselves and their children.
The story takes a new turn as one of these children, Joseph, comes to America in 1920 - marrying, making his way, embracing the new world yet unable wholly to relinquish the old. Joseph's painful sense of divided loyalty is intensified by the outbreak of World War II, and embodied in his relationship with his American-born son, the young author, who sees himself as an "alien" under his father's roof, yet still an "outsider" on the flag-waving Protestant island of Ocean City.
Interweaving historic fact with details gathered from family tales, interviews, letters and diaries, Gay Talese has juxtaposed his family's adventures with the dominant events and disasters that have affected their lives. Encompassing three generations and two World Wars, Unto the Sons combines the breadth of history with the intimate dreams of family. It is a captivating human story that powerfully evokes the universal experience of immigration.
Talse carries us into the nineteenth- century patriarchal world of his great-grandfather in the village of Maida (after which London's Maida Vale was named) - a region immersed in the mysticism of the Church and haunted by echoes of Roman glory and the subsequent waves of foreign invasion. His story moves from Italy to America and back again as it follows the men of the village, among them the author's grandfather. Their half-lives in a Pennsylvania factory town are vividly evoked, as are their infrequent reunions with their wives, the fabled "white widows" left behind in Italy, who summon up the passion to make a place for themselves and their children.
The story takes a new turn as one of these children, Joseph, comes to America in 1920 - marrying, making his way, embracing the new world yet unable wholly to relinquish the old. Joseph's painful sense of divided loyalty is intensified by the outbreak of World War II, and embodied in his relationship with his American-born son, the young author, who sees himself as an "alien" under his father's roof, yet still an "outsider" on the flag-waving Protestant island of Ocean City.
Interweaving historic fact with details gathered from family tales, interviews, letters and diaries, Gay Talese has juxtaposed his family's adventures with the dominant events and disasters that have affected their lives. Encompassing three generations and two World Wars, Unto the Sons combines the breadth of history with the intimate dreams of family. It is a captivating human story that powerfully evokes the universal experience of immigration.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
About the Author:
Gay Talese joined the reportorial staff of The New York Times in 1955, and remained there for a decade. During the 1960s and 1970s he contributed many articles to magazines, principally Esquire. He is the author of seven previous books, includingthree bestsellers: Thy Neighbor's Wife, Honor Thy Father, and The Kingdom and the Power. He was born in Ocean City, New Jersey, in with his wife, Nan A. Talese, an editor and publisher, and their daughters Pamela and Catherine.
From the Inside Flap:
"An Italian ROOTS." The Washington Post Book World
At long last, Gay Talese, one of America's greatest living authors, employs his prodigious storytelling gifts to tell the saga of his own family's emigration to America from Italy in the years preceding World War II. Ultimately it is the story of all immigrant families and the hope and sacrifice that took them from the familiarity of the old world into the mysteries and challenges of the new.
At long last, Gay Talese, one of America's greatest living authors, employs his prodigious storytelling gifts to tell the saga of his own family's emigration to America from Italy in the years preceding World War II. Ultimately it is the story of all immigrant families and the hope and sacrifice that took them from the familiarity of the old world into the mysteries and challenges of the new.
"From the Paperback edition.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherHutchinson
- Publication date1980
- ISBN 10 0091770769
- ISBN 13 9780091770761
- BindingHardcover
- Rating
(No Available Copies)
Search Books: Create a WantIf you know the book but cannot find it on AbeBooks, we can automatically search for it on your behalf as new inventory is added. If it is added to AbeBooks by one of our member booksellers, we will notify you!
Create a Want