Blue Italian

by Rita Ciresi

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 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.

Genres: Fiction, Love Story

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Rita Ciresi was born in New Haven, Connecticut, a city which serves as the backdrop for most of her fiction. Ciresi is the author of three award-winning novels and two short-story collections that address the Italian-American experience.

Her latest novel, Bring Back My Body to Me, was a semi-finalist for the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award and a runner-up for the Faulkner/Wisdom Novella Award. Publishers Weekly called it "sensitive, funny, and charming. . . a refreshing entry to the very clogged sub-genre of cancer lit."

Her first collection of short stories, Mother Rocket, won the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction and was a finalist for the 1993 Los Angeles Times' Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction.

Her first novel, Blue Italian, was published in hardcover in 1996 by Ecco Press and in paperback by Delacorte Press in 1997. In 1999, it was translated and published as Blau ist die Hoffnung by Goldmann Verlag, Munich. Blue Italian was selected by Barnes and Noble as part of their "Discover New Writers Series." Reviewers have praised the novel as follows: "Rita Ciresi's beautifully written, bittersweet first novel examines love and marriage with unflinching honesty. The ending, with its moving, explicit sense of loss, resonates long after the book is closed." (Elle) "There is a sure hand and a keen eye reporting from the two ethnic camps. . . . Despite their faults and excesses. . . the characters. . . are funny and sympathetic in their misery." (New York Times) "This is honest, earthy, warm, and funny--as well as heartbreaking. Highly recommended." (Library Journal) "There is real substance in this tragicomic story of two people with smart mouths and starved hearts groping their way towards a love they don't get much chance to enjoy." (Publisher's Weekly) "A remarkably accomplished debut." (Booklist)

Ciresi’s second novel, Pink Slip was published by Delacorte in 1999, and by Delta Trade paperbacks in 2000. It was translated into German as Ein Mann fur Lisa (Goldmann Verlag, Munich) and into Dutch as Vlinders (Arena Publishers, Amsterdam). Pink Slip was the winner of the 1997 Pirate's Alley Faulkner Prize for the Novel and an alternate selection of the Literary Guild and the Doubleday Book Club. Critical response to Pink Slip was as follows: “Wit and humor are the keys to this lively novel.” (Mademoiselle) “It’s refreshing to find a female narrator with an authentically lusty voice.” (New York Times) “A moving love story.” (Redbook) “Ciresi mixes the tragic and the comic aspects of love in hilarious fashion.” (Tampa Tribune-Times) “Bright characters and sharp dialogue make this witty romantic comedy a worthy sequel to the author’s admirable Blue Italian.” (Dallas Morning News) “Pink Slip amuses from start to finish.” (Penn Stater).

Ciresi’s volume of linked short stories, Sometimes I Dream in Italian, was published in 2001 to positive reviews from Kirkus, Publisher’s Weekly, and newspapers from the St. Petersburg Times to the New Haven Advocate. The New York Times Book Review listed the volume under its “New and Noteworthy Paperbacks” and stated, “Ciresi has a lovely ear for dialogue and the ability to nail the details in descriptions that are both funny and painfully accurate.” The collection was a Book Sense 76 pick and a finalist for the Paterson Fiction Prize; it was translated into German by Goldmann Verlag as Italienische Kusse.

Remind Me Again Why I Married You is a sequel to Pink Slip. Told in alternating voices, Remind Me explains what happens when a man who values his privacy above all else marries a woman who is writing a tell-all novel.

Reviews

[Elizabeth Laborde · Rating 5 out of 5]

After reading "Pink Slip," I wanted to explore another Rita Ciresi novel. That, and I am currently writing a book in which the protagonist's mother is dying of cancer. I wanted to research how another handled a similar topic. Not surprisingly, Ciresi does so with acerbic wit, bittersweet emotions, renunciations, washes of anger, despair, and regret. While her portray is quite different from how I will approach it in my novel (it's a daughter/mother relationship as opposed to spousal), it's helpful to watch another author express the raw emotions that most of us are unwilling to admit to each other, such as the irritation about a mother-in-law's hovering or the jealously over a spouse having a kinder father than the other. I appreciated Ciresi's willingness to undress the uglier emotions the line a family tree, to give them a voice, and a human voice. Perhaps I can model some of her bravery as I work through the first draft of my second novel, "Black Friday" in the coming months.

While this book is not what I expected, it has similarities to "Pink Slip" in the sense it was a Catholic protag, a Jewish spouse, ongoing religious battles, much family distress, and perpetual self-doubt/loathing. Recently, I read about a literary agent who was shocked anyone would bother to write about a protagonist who didn't know she was pretty, as if this were the craziest idea ever. I'm not sure I know many women who truly believe they're beautiful, so Ciresi seems closer to telling a woman's story than the agent who thought those kind of stories were passe. I would recommend "Blue Italian" to someone who likes women's literature with more depth and bite than the typical novel.

[Pam McGinty]

I wasn’t crazy about this book. I found it hard to keep interested in it. It seemed like just one long story.

[Steph Green · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think I am the only person I know who has read this book, and I have read it multiple times. It's a tale of a woman from a working class, Italian neighborhood in New Haven who falls in love with a Jewish guy from a fancy background. Challenges ensue. The plot may sound hackneyed and predictable but Ciresi's characters, Rosa and Gary, are multi-dimensional and flawed, which makes the story take unexpected turns that depart from the usual tensions over religion, money, and culture that one would expect. I also loved the descriptions of the Italian neighborhood that Rosa comes from because they so perfectly capture the vibe in the working class Italian neighborhood in northern Pennsylvania that my father grew up in. I saw a lot of my own family in the Salvatores. I especially loved the fact that Rosa's mother thinks Jesus was Italian. One warning about this book: its tone is light and winsome but it's actually super heavy and depressing. Don't expect to be in a jolly mood after finishing this one.

[Cathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Blue Italian is so moving, so different in tone from Rita Ciresi's later novels. It's the type of book you know the ending by the second chapter, and as I kept reading it was like prodding a scab. Did I really want to continue watching Rosa fall in love with Gary? Did I want to see what they go they go through before he ultimately succumbs from cancer (not really a spoiler -- most of the novel is told in flashback, and as I mentioned earlier, it talks about his death in the second chapter)? Then again, how can I envy somebody this marvelous courtship--and later relationship--knowing it's all going to end? Ciresi deals liberal doses of bitter, with more salty than sweet tempering the story. Gary is the quintessential guy who won't stop telling stories about his life, and Rosa is the cliched insecure woman who is embarrassed by everything she wishes others wouldn't do. Despite their quirks, they fall in love, in a very realistic and not glossy way. As Rosa put it, "How could I have married you?...How could I not have?"

[Patrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

A story about a woman from Connecticut raised in an Italian-American family. She seems to struggle with her background, her family, and life. She meets and eventually marries a Yale law student, who is from Long Island, and is an only child from a Jewish family. There is a lot to connect in the story to the title..."Blue Italian". That said, I picked up the book to read because the author is a woman, writing about a woman. I figured, as a male, I could peer inside the mind of a woman, a little, and see what goes on there. Interesting. I also could identify with the husband, so kudos. The book dwells on big issues such as life, death, love, marriage, sex, and family. There are no conclusions to these issues, but interesting perspectives.

[Liz · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun quick read. The language used by the characters seemed so real and gave an authentic flavor to the Italian and Jewish components. Rosa's and Gary's embarrasment of their respective families was palbable. It was easy to like this couple and even though you know what the ending will be it was well written.

[Lisa Collins · Rating 4 out of 5]

The characters in this story made this book a fun read for me even though the ending was sad. The Italian references were spot on (in my family anyway). I just loved Gary's sarcastic wit with his wife and mother-in-law. This book really should have gotten more attention. It is just as good as any fiction that is currently out.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had fun with this one. This novel truly shows the intricacies of marriage and family dynamics. It's a bitter sweet tale that shows how we can love and hate our spouses at the same time - and that's normal!

[Melissa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Throughout the first 2/3 of the book, just wanted to tell them to get over their childhoods already! However, the end of the book allowed enough growth of the characters that I could muster up some sympathy and even cried at one point. Not my favorite.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this one, despite the fact that it made me want to cry at times. The ending was a bit predictable. I especially enjoyed the author's liberal use of Italian slang and curse words - it reminds me of my family.

[Cindy · Rating 1 out of 5]

As unfunny as "Sometimes I Dream in Italian" was funny. This chronicles a young married couple through courtship, marriage, in-laws, miscarriage, and death of the husband from cancer. It was interesting but too grim. The bride complains all the time and never expresses her love.

[Irving]

Italian woman Jewish man, romance ensues and they get married. Family life explored. Love but arguments. Italian family life and Jewish family life. Man Yale affluent family. Man get sick as story starts.

[colleen · Rating 2 out of 5]

after enjoying most of her other work, i found this one very disappointing.

[Jeanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story of an Italian American women and her Jewish husband, it goes through their marriage and the ultimate crumbling....pretty good

[Karyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think I learned vague things about the geography of Connecticut from this book.

[Kathy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eh...it was just okay.

[Lois · Rating 5 out of 5]

A story of love, marriage and families. It made my laugh and cry. Just a good book to curl up with and enjoy.

[Tree · Rating 3 out of 5]

The many Italian references and originality kept my interest, though I want to scream at the protagonist to stop feeling so Catholic and therefore guilty for things that weren't her fault.

[Laurie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't remember this book at all...gave it the benefit of the doubt with 2 stars...

[Karen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good book but what an ending! It was horrible.

[Julia · Rating 3 out of 5]

parts funny but overall sad and no ending.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story was emotionally charged but captured my attention it highlights the value of relationships & never taking anything for granted.

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just a romance novel, but one I really liked!