Choice Review

In this first book-length treatment of Italian American women writers, Bona (Gonzaga Univ.)examines a series of novels in pairs. Mari Tomasi's Like Lesser Gods (1949) and Marion Benasutti's No Steady Job for Papa (1966), immigrant sagas, depict the immigrant's accommodation to US values in the early 1900s; Octavia Waldo's A Cup of the Sun (1961) and Josephine Gattuso Hendin's The Right Thing to Do (1988) concern generational conflict; Diana Cavallo's A Bridge of Leaves (1961) and Dorothy Bryant's Miss Giardino (1978) focus on ethnicity and character; Helen Barolini's Umbertina (1979) and Tina De Rosa's Paper Fish (1980) reflect the perspective of the third generation. In a final chapter on recent developments, Bona points out that writers of the 1980s and '90s, no longer concerned with transcending ethnic identity, seem more interested in the interplay between their cultural identity and their development as women (she cites Dodici Azpadu's Saturday Night in the Prime of Life, 1983, and Rachel Guido deVries's Tender Warriors, 1986, in which lesbian daughters are forced out of the household, as examples). Many of the novels Bona discusses are almost unknown and out of print, so she does readers an inestimable service with this volume. Essential for feminist collections and recommended for academic collections at all levels. J. Shreve; Allegany College of Maryland