Pages: 152
Book Type: Trade Paper
ISBN: 1550712594
ISBN13: 9781550712599
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At the Copa
With humor and poignancy,
these stories expose the social and sexual turmoil of
men and women in“the old age of youth.” In “The Knife
Lady,” a seemingly happily married suburbanite
receives a jolt of sexual panic with the visit of a
woman selling knives. The husband in “Future Games”
encourages his wife to have an affair with another man
to save their floundering marriage, and the resulting
drama is parsed through the uncomprehending eyes of
their young daughter. A restless dentist on a visit to
a bizarre charlatan discovers an unlikely cure to
what’s ailing him. And in “After Victory” a
star-crossed World War II couple meets again after
fifty years with stunning results. In “Ticket to
Ride,” a man evaluates his own collapsing, childless
marriage in light of his parents’ sudden divorce
announcement. These are a few of the stories whose
primary fault zone is the seemingly stable, secretly
unhappy middle-class marriage seen from various views.
Reviews
"...Even the most tragic stories
float on a solid sense of humor that erupts now and
then into a full-scale belly laugh. Labozzetta is an
astute observer of life who knows that outside of
life's silver linings are roaring thunderstorms,
hurricanes and all sorts of unpredictable
phenomena."
-Fred Gardaphe in FRA NOI
"...what it does do is
gnaw at your soul, makes you stand back and do a
personal assessment...Believe me, Marisa is on the
mark."
-Jeffrey Griffiths in Front and Centre
“Labozzetta infuses her
stories with a wry wit and a subtle,
nuanced feel for the shifting emotional currents
underlying seemingly placid lives.”
–Kirkus
“Labozzetta… praised as
a chronicler of Italian-American Life.”
—The Valley Advocate
“In ‘At the Copa,’ she
(Labozzetta) is a keen observer of the whole range
of American experience…I especially liked ‘Surprise’
in which a wife plans an unusual surprise for her
husband who has gone on a one-week camping trip. The
final paragraph is a gem.”
—Irmarie Jones in The Recorder
“The strength of Labozzetta’s
collection lies in her capability of presenting a
wide range of realistic characters and incidents. In
her mirror held up to human nature each of them
reads his/her own story.” …(Labozzetta) employs a
wide-angle lens, offering a picture of modern
American that transcends the invisible boundaries of
the ethnic niche…”
—Elisabetta Marino in Italian Americana
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