From Publishers Weekly
Never mind the Mafia; it's the mamas you have to watch out for. At least that's what Ermelino would have you believe in her zesty debut novel about life in New York's Little Italy from the '40s through the '60s. In an old-fashioned neighborhood where the people who have surrounded you all your life can be depended on to behave in predictable ways, a group of women gather nightly on a Spring Street stoop, mothers willing to protect their children at all costs. There's Teresa, whose young son Nicky loses the power to walk following an accident, only to miraculously regain it at the funeral of the father who abandoned him; Magdalena, the siren from the Old Country, married to an older man with "connections"; and Antoinette, mother to Jumbo, the largest bambino (at approximately 23 pounds) that Spring Street has ever seen. These women all believe strongly in fate, but when fate needs a little shove, they're more than willing to provide it, particularly when Jumbo, now grown, takes up with a nice Jewish girl. All the women pray to the eponymous black-faced Madonna, a famous statue in Viggiano, Italy, and some see their prayers answered. Ermelino catches the earthy voices of her Italian-American blue-collar paisanos, and she weaves a fast-moving plot that makes up for its thinness with atmospheric detail. Though essentially more a collection of vignettes than a novel, the warmth and humor of this slice-of-lives storytelling are seductive. Agent, Elaine Markson. (Mar.)Forecast: With blurbs from, among others, Fay Weldon, Susan Isaacs and Vincent Patrick, this novel should garner reviewer and reader attention. That Ermelino still lives in Manhattan's Little Italy could prove a useful publicity hook and, if tapped into, her media experience--with TV's Top Cops, at Time and People, and currently at In Style, where she's a reporter--will help sell books. Featuring great roles for character actresses, this engaging novel has TV sitcom potential.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
Adult/High School-Ermelino injects warm, good-natured emotions into a colorful tale of Italian-Americans in the middle of the last century. Families who live in New York City's Spring Street tenements share their love for good food, family ties, and gossip on the front stoop. In special cases, mystical prayers for intercession to the Black Madonna emanate from three powerful women, Teresa, Antoinette, and Magdalena. They share their stories against this backdrop, with all of the humor, sadness, and everyday miracles typical of life. The women focus all of their energy, ambitions, love, and forays into magical prayers and supplications on their sons, or, in Magdalena's case, stepson. These young men, in turn, share their adventures with all of the intertwinings such close proximity implies. The author conjures up details of tenement life, and her female characters are unique yet still able to represent the quintessential portrait of the widow. The young men are just as individual, especially as they become adults, each seeking his own way, yet still tied to his mother, his culture, and the neighborhood in which he was raised. Capturing an era, the specific locale, and the ethnic force of these people, Ermelino provides a glimpse into another time and place with a touch of magical realism in the presence of the Black Madonna.
Pam Johnson, Fairfax County Public Library, VA Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
