The novel is set in post-WWII South Philadelphia. It's a story about family feuds, about Italian connections, about theater, about passions, about forgivess, about finding one's self. It's about race, it's about friendship, it's about controlling your own destiny. In retrospect, it was probably about too much. She could have easily written a series involving the characters in this book with each aspect of the plot given more prominence.
Even though I didn't love this book, I think what made me enjoy it is as much as I did is because the main character, surprisingly not named Carlo but rather Nicky, grows up in South Philadelphia where my daughter lives. And he finds himself at a local theater. My daughter works at a local theater. It doesn't hurt that my husband is Italian and Italian families and their stories hold a special place in my heart.
There was also a Holocaust/Jewish connection in the book. One of the cousins married a war bride from Poland. She was so integrated into the Italian family, but Nicky realized that there was something from her past that she missed. She missed being Jewish.
Much of the book was predictable but that didn't make it any less enjoyable to me.
I wonder if these characters will be back in another novel.
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