Mount Allegro: A Memoir of Italian American Life - Paperback

by Jerre Mangione (Author), Eugene Nassar (Foreword by)

Mount Allegro is an extraordinary memoir, a celebration of Sicilian life, an engaging sociological portrait, a moving reminiscence of a fledgling writer's escape from the restrictive culture in which he grew up. Jerre Mangione's autobiographical chronicle of his youth in a Sicilian community in Rochester is one of the truly enduring books about the immigrant experience in this country. Family squabbles, soul-nourishing food, and the casting of evil eyes are only some of the ingredients of this richly textured book, although they must all take second place to its unforgettable characters. As Eugene Paul Nassar writes in the book's Foreword, "Mount Allegro . . . gave a literary visibility and identity, amiable and appealing, to a poorly understood ethnic group in America, and did so at a very high level of artistry."

Author Biography

Jerre Mangione was the former coordinating editor of the Federal Writers' Project and professor emeritus of English at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of ten books, including The Dream and the Deal: The Federal Writers' Project, 1935-1943 (reprinted by Syracuse University Press) and An Ethnic at Large.