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Birds of Passage by Joe Giordano book review

By Melissa Muldoon
Wednesday, November 4th, 2015

birds-passage-joe-giordano-book-review
A book review for Laura Fabiani’s Italy Book Tours: Reviewing books that are set in Italy, have an Italian theme, are written by an Italian author or translated from Italian.

birds-passage-joe-giordano-book-reviewNel suo nuovo libro “Birds of Passage”, Joe Giordano parla della vita di immigrati italiani a cavallo del secolo a New York. È la storia di due uomini napoletani che lasciano l’Itali nel 1905 a trovare una nuova vita. Uno in cerca di fortuna, l’altro per evitare una condanna per un crimine violento.

In his new book Birds of Passage, Joe Giordano explores the life of Italian immigrants at the turn of the century in New York. It is the story of two Neapolitan men who leave Italy in 1905 to find new lives. One to seek his fortune, the other to escape being convicted of a violent crime.

“Uccelli di passaggio” è un termine usato per descrivere migranti dell’Europa meridionale e contadini che avevano perso le loro proprietà a seguito della commercializzazione dell’agricoltura. Questi stranieri sono arrivati sul suolo americano con la promessa di guadagnare ingenti somme di denaro facendo lavori che erano considerati non degni dai lavoratori americani.

“Birds of Passage” is a term used to describe Eastern and Southern European migrants and peasants who had lost their property as a result of the commercialization of agriculture. These foreigners arrived on U.S. soil with the promise of earning large sums of money doing jobs that were often viewed as beneath native-born laborers. They were immigrants who never intended to make America their home.

birds-passage-joe-giordano-book-review
Gli uccelli di passaggio erano una parte fondamentale dell’economia degli Stati Uniti durante il periodo di immigrazione di massa (1880-1920), quando più di 20 milioni di immigrati sono arrivati negli Stati Uniti. Espansione industriale, opportunità economiche, e la possibilità di tornare alle loro terre motivano questi Europei. Molti di loro sono venuti in America da soli, in attesa di ricongiungersi con le loro famiglie in Europa nel giro di pochi anni con i soldi per comprare un terreno. Dal 1907 al 1911 di ogni 100 italiani arrivati negli Stati Uniti, settantatré sono tornati in Italia.

Birds of passage were a crucial part of the U.S. economy during the height of mass immigration (1880–1920), when more than 20 million immigrants arrived in the United States. Industrial expansion, economic opportunities, and the possibility of returning to their homelands motivated these Europeans. Many of them came to America alone, expecting to rejoin their families in Europe within a few years with enough money to purchase a piece of land. From 1907 to 1911, of every 100 Italians who arrived in the United States, seventy-three returned to Italy.

BirdsPassage_StudentessaMatta4L’idea della storia è venuta in mente all’autore dopo aver ascoltato le storie dei suoi parenti. Padre e il nonno dell’autore erano immigrati italiani che lavoravano come straccivendoli a New York. Sua madre, una delle cinque figlie lavorava a casa cucendo. Giordano scrive: “Nonostante i pregiudizi che gli italiani hanno sofferto, non si sono mai visti come vittime. Lavoravano così tanto per fare una vita migliore per se stessi e le loro famiglie erano troppo occupate per notarlo. Quando ero piccolo, se mio padre ed io vedevamo un uomo che faceva lavoro manuale, mio padre mi diceva: “Vedi quello? Andare a scuola!” In oltre l’autore dice “Molti italo-americani sono stati sostenuti dai primi immigrati che erano intrepidi e hanno fatto molto per creare una vita migliore in un nuovo paese.”

The idea for the story came to the author after have heard the stories of his relatives. The author’s own father and grandfather were Italian immigrants who worked as ragmen in New York. His mother, one of five daughters was employed at home doing piece work. Giordano writes: “Despite the prejudice Italians experienced, they never saw themselves as victims. They were too busy working, trying to make a better life for themselves and their families. When I was growing up, if my father and I passed a man doing hard manual labor, my father would say to me, “See that? Go to school.” The author further comments that “Many Italian-Americans stand upon the shoulders of those intrepid enough to try and make a better life in a new country”.

birds-passage-joe-giordano-book-review

Nonostante la sua conoscenza diretta della storia degli “Birds of Passage” il libro di Giordano non è un’autobiografia. Lui invece vuole descrivere lo stato d’animo e le lotte degli immigranti italiani a cavallo del secolo. Mentre mi è piaciuto leggere dei tentativi di fare una nuova vita in America e le difficoltà che hanno affrontato, la mancanza di rispetto, pregiudizi e la corruzione, tuttavia ho avuto qualche difficoltà con la scrittura. Le transizioni tra capitoli tendevano ad essere brusche e le descrizioni sono state un po’ banali. La storia aveva una premessa interessante, ma non ha toccato la mia immaginazione come mi sarebbe piaciuto.

Despite his direct knowledge of the history of birds of passage, Giordano’s book is not an autobiography. Instead he  tries to capture the mood and the struggles encountered by the turn of the century Italian immigrant. While I enjoyed reading of their attempts to make a new life in America and the struggles they come up against, dealing with disrespect, prejudice, and corruption, I had some difficulty with the writing itself. The transitions within the chapters tended to be abrupt and some of the descriptive text a little too contrived and ordinary. While the story had interesting premise, the story didn’t captivate my imagination as I would have liked.

Prendete il volo con “Birds of Passage” per scoprire di più sulla vita degli immigrati italiani, come scritta dallo scrittore Joe Giordano. Avete un “uccello di passaggio” nella vostra famiglia? Fatemi sapere le vostre storie! Buona lettura!

Take flight with “Birds of Passage” and discover more about Italian immigrant life, as described by author Joe Giordano. Do you have a “bird of passage” in your family history. Let me me know your personal stories! Happy reading!

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Categories : language learning
Tags : Birds of Passage, italian, Italian immigrants, italian language, Italy, Italy Book Tours, Joe Giordano, Laura Fabiani, Melissa Muldoon, Studentessa Matta, Ucelli di passaggio

Comments

  1. Joe Giordano says:
    November 4, 2015 at 6:45 am

    Grazie for the time and attention you gave my novel.
    Joe Giordano

    Reply
  2. Víctor Valda says:
    November 5, 2015 at 10:49 am

    Me piace montó leggere i suoi blogs, imparo un saco. Me piacerebbe leggere uccelli di passaggio nell’italiano. Le ingraziarè si può dirme dove posso trovarlo.
    Grazie

    Reply
    • Melissa Muldoon says:
      November 5, 2015 at 9:41 pm

      Ciao Victor, puoi trovare il libro di Joe Giordano su Amazon. Il libro è scritto in inglese, non in Italiano. Ecco il link: http://www.amazon.com/Birds-Passage-Joe-Giordano/dp/1941861083

      Buona lettura! A presto! Melissa

      Reply
  3. Victor says:
    November 8, 2015 at 9:30 pm

    Grazie mille

    Reply

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