Night Bloom

An Italian-American Life

Part of Bluestreak

Paperback
$16.00 US
On sale Oct 10, 1999 | 280 Pages | 978-0-8070-7217-2
Of the mysterious Night Blooming Cereus, Mary Cappello writes: "The flower fell into our neighborhood like a shooting star." That neighborhood was a working-class suburb of Philadelphia riven by class distinction and haunted by contradiction. In tracing the marks that immigration and assimilation have left on her Italian-American family, Cappello also offers us her family's unsung art-their gardens, letters, and rosary beads-for the lessons they teach us about desire, creativity, and loss.
Mary Cappello is associate professor of English at the University of Rhode Island. She lives in Providence, Rhode Island.

About

Of the mysterious Night Blooming Cereus, Mary Cappello writes: "The flower fell into our neighborhood like a shooting star." That neighborhood was a working-class suburb of Philadelphia riven by class distinction and haunted by contradiction. In tracing the marks that immigration and assimilation have left on her Italian-American family, Cappello also offers us her family's unsung art-their gardens, letters, and rosary beads-for the lessons they teach us about desire, creativity, and loss.

Author

Mary Cappello is associate professor of English at the University of Rhode Island. She lives in Providence, Rhode Island.

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