Blue Italian - Hardcover

When Rosa Salvatore, a Roman Catholic Italian, and Gary Fisher, the only child of prosperous Jewish parents in Long Island, decide to marry, it isn't just their vastly different family backgrounds that lead to their demise. Gary, at age 31, is dying of prostate cancer. Rosa, to put it mildly, has a chip on her shoulder--something she inherited from her mother, who, for Gary, is worse than the stereotypical mother-in-law. As Gary's condition worsens, Rosa's bitterness and shrewishness increases, despite her love for him. And though she seeks professional help, her inability to face the truth about herself ultimately destroys both her marriage and herself.

Skillfully capturing the daily quirks of life in a boisterous, working-class ethnic family--daily assaulted by family clamor, endless courses of food, embarrassment and fierce love--Blue Italian traces the pitfalls of the young life and three-year marriage of a wise-cracking and heart-winning heroine, Rosa Salvatore. With an ear for acid dialogue and an eye for everyday ironies, Ciresi unfolds Rosa Salvatore's tale: growing up on fantasies, guilt, and fagioli in the New Haven working-class Italian neighborhood of Pizza Beach; working her way through a local college by slinging hash, while agonizing over her thighs and aching for passion; landing a job and meeting Gary Fisher, a nice Jewish lawyer from Flushing with a great butt and angst of his own. Rosa and Gary fall in love, make love, get married, fight, make up, fight again--until Gary is diagnosed with a terminal illness, and Rosa realizes the power of her love--and the crushing force of regret.

Frank and warm, crackling with razor-sharp wit, Blue Italian is a love story about an ill-fated couple who almost missed realizing how much they loved each other. It establishes Rita Ciresi as a writer with a unique gift for language, character, and emotion--a novelist to read, and a novelist to watch.