Bøger af Linda Decicco

Immigrant stories abound in American literature, as we - the fortunate sons and daughters - document our family histories. The struggles and successes of those who arrived celebrate the American experience. But what of those left behind? What of those families torn asunder and separated by an ocean? What lies on the other side of the Promised Land? Such questions are addressed in The Fig and the Flower. At Ellis Island, people directed to the center staircase were sent back to the life they had intended to leave forever. The stairs to the left led to ferryboats to New York City; to the right, to rail stations to other American cities. But those sent to the center staircase were detained for reasons of insanity or sickness or politics, and they were more than likely deported.What became of those families separated at Ellis Island? What happened to the brothers and sisters and mothers and fathers who were denied passage through those portals at the Statue of Liberty? This novel attempts to tell the story of one such family in the early 1900s. Two sisters from Italy are separated when one is tested positive for trachoma, an infectious eye disease that was one of the leading causes for deportation.

When a Chicago mobster suddenly disappears, his unsuspecting lover is left to put together the pieces. For their daughter Lucy, there's no safety in this net, stitched together with lies. As Lucy tugs at each loose end to unravel the past, she unwittingly pulls the strings for a dramatic conclusion. Set against a backdrop of the 2007 "Family Secrets" trial, the biggest mob case to hit Chicago, this is the story of one family's secrets.

Killing a man in a bar fight in Pittsburgh sends 16-year-old Giuseppe on a train going west. Relatives in South Bend, Indiana, finagle a job for him in the middle of the Depression. The year is 1935 and the factory is Studebaker, the legendary carmaker. Spoiled by his mother, Giuseppe is not used to the hard work at the plant's foundry, but he flourishes under the care of these well-meaning relatives - until a visit from the mother he left in Pittsburgh, who simply cannot stay away from the son that she loves more than her own husband. The bar fight that made him a fugitive wouldn't have been such a surprise if his parents had known about his parallel life - running numbers since he was 12 for the bookies down at the bar in Pittsburgh. Now in South Bend, he finds his way into another unsavory situation. An after-hours job at the cigar shop turns out to be a front for the gambling, liquor and prostitution business run by the Outfit from Chicago. His aunt crunches numbers for Studebaker by day - and for Local 5 of the United Auto Workers by night. His uncle is working on a new car, the Champion - a Trojan Horse that Studebaker is rolling out in hopes that the company can climb its way from the brink of bankruptcy. Union activities and manufacturing woes are all part of this story of immigrants and the American Dream. Any dream Giuseppe harbors is shattered when the guys from Chicago put a gun in his hand. This is the second novel in the trilogy called The Crossing.

The SLF Album is the first comprehensive story of the University of Notre Dame's Sophomore Literary Festival. This portrait focuses primarily on the literary giants whose presence has made this festival one of the nation's most esteemed. It also gives us a fascinating, behind-the-scenes look at this thirty year-old phenomenon which has always been organized, coordinated, and managed by students.Established in 1967 as a week-long Faulknerian festival, in 1968 the Sophomore Literary Festival came into its own with a series of readings and workshops by some of the country's most prestigious writers, including Norman Mailer, Joseph Heller, Kurt Vonnegut, and Ralph Ellison. The precedent set in 1968 became a legacy which has carried through to 1996, and DeCicco's portrait presents each year as its own chapter. equal on importance and prestige to all previous years. In addition to providing excerpts from the writers' readings and lectures, DeCicco describes the sophomore committee's author selection process and events which shed light ion the fame and foibles of many literary greats.DeCicco's success in portraying the participating internationally acclaimed authors, who include Margaret Atwood, Allen Ginsberg, Arthur Miller, Robert Bly, Tennessee Williams, Joyce Carol Oates, Edward Albee, Susan Sontag, Gloria Naylor, is uniquely tied to the intimacy of the Notre Dame setting. Her record encompasses the mythical images of these world-renowned authors in the context of a modest student-run festival at a midwestern private university. This comprehensive history is important and fascinating reading for all who have experienced the magic of Notre Dame's Sophomore Literary Festival, as well as for anyone interested in the arts.