Mount Allegro

a memoir of Italian American life

309 pages

English language

Published June 26, 1998 by Syracuse University Press.

ISBN:
978-0-8156-0429-7
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(1 review)

Depicts the lives of Sicilian immigrants in Rochester, New York, in the first half of the twentieth century as their customs blend and clash with those of their adopted country.

6 editions

Review of 'Mount Allegro' on 'Goodreads'

A fantastic memoir of growing up in a Sicilian community in Rochester in the 1920s. This hits close to home for me as I'm Italian/Sicilian on my father's side; my great-aunt married into this community (or, well, what was left of it; by that time it had dispersed).

It leaves me somewhat depressed, as this world (like the worlds in all older memoirs) is totally disappeared, but so close to us generationally. Mangione was able to go back to his parents' hometowns in the 1930s and meet their friends and relations, and see firsthand why they left. Today my Italian relatives are likely third cousins at best and would probably have no stories to share of my great-grandfather and great-grandmother. I have no stories of them passed down in the family - as a third-gen child, my father couldn't even communicate with his grandmother.

It does leave me curious as …

Subjects

  • Mangione, Jerre Gerlando, 1909-
  • Italian Americans -- New York (State) -- Rochester -- Social life and customs.
  • Italian Americans -- New York (State) -- Rochester -- Biography.
  • Rochester (N.Y.) -- Biography.
  • Rochester (N.Y.) -- Social life and customs.