When I Am Italian

In a series of detailed essays, Herman (The Anarchist Bastard: Growing Up Italian in America) shines a light on growing up Italian-American after WWII. The child of working-class Italian-Americans and granddaughter of Italian immigrants, Herman came of age in the 1960s. She groups her essays in broad categories: her childhood days in Waterbury, Conn., in a patriarchal home; the food she grew up eating (included is a delicious-sounding recipe for homemade tomato paste); her years in New York City; events that compelled her to write (including an eloquent tribute to a friend who was murdered in 1970); and time spent in her family’s village in southern Italy. “My ancestral village in America is Waterbury, Connecticut,” she proclaims, citing other examples of U.S. cities with bustling Italian enclaves—such as Hoboken, N.J.; South Philadelphia; and Chicago—and noting how they produce those who “learned the rules and the customs, the recipes and rituals of our tribe,” whom she invites to identify as Italians, rather than Italian-Americans. The persistence of memory is evident in Herman’s loving recollections, and her passion for her heritage comes through consistently. Italophiles or not, readers will enjoy Herman’s astute look at multigenerational immigrant life. (Nov.)