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SUNY Series in Italian/American Culture
L Is for Lion: An Italian Bronx Butch Freedom Memoir
FINALIST – 2014 Lambda Literary Award in the Lesbian Memoir/Biography Category, presented by the Lambda Literary Foundation
A 1960s Bronx tomboy learns how to survive her brutal but humorous Italian family and all the rest that life throws her. The harder you hit the pavement, the higher you fly.
This vivid memoir speaks the intense truth of a Bronx tomboy whose 1960s girlhood was marked by her father’s lullabies laced with his dissociative memories of combat in World War II. At four years old, Annie Rachele Lanzillotto bounced her Spaldeen on the stoop and watched the boys play stickball in the street; inside, she hid silver teaspoons behind the heat pipes to tap calls for help while her father beat her mother. At eighteen, on the edge of ambitious freedom, her studies at Brown University were halted by the growth of a massive tumor inside her chest. Thus began a wild, truth-seeking journey for survival, fueled by the lessons of lasagna vows, and Spaldeen ascensions. From the stoops of the Bronx to cross-dressing on the streets of Egypt, from the cancer ward at Memorial Sloan-Kettering to New York City’s gay club scene of the ’80s, this poignant and authentic story takes us from underneath the dining room table to the stoop, the sidewalk, the street, and, ultimately, out into the wide world of immigration, gay subculture, cancer treatment, mental illness, gender dynamics, drug addiction, domestic violence, and a vast array of Italian American characters. With a quintessential New Yorker as narrator and guide, this journey crescendos in a reluctant return home to the timeless wisdom of a peasant, immigrant grandmother, Rosa Marsico Petruzzelli, who shows us the sweetest essence of soul.
“…a truly inspirational story that takes us beyond gender, beyond sexual persuasion, and into the humanity that defines us all … Annie’s is a liberating story, not only in what happens to her, but in the way she tells it … L Is for Lion is an extraordinary telling of ordinary experiences in the life of a Bronx Butch.” — Fra Noi
“You need to read this book because it’s the most powerful depiction I have ever read of how a human being can draw on her folk culture, her humor, and her poetic insight to pull life-affirming meaning out of the gutter like a lost spaldeen … L Is for Lion is a luscious lasagna pulled from the hot stove that binds us together as human beings.” — Steve Zeitlin, City Lore
“Annie Rachele Lanzillotto is a vividly talented writer whose coming of age story as a Bronx Italian lesbian creates a superb memoir. Rollicking with detail, poetic in language L Is for Lion is the book you read while walking through the house or out to your mailbox, just not wanting to pause even a moment.” — San Francisco Book Review
“This sprawling narrative could be called an Italian memoir, a Bronx memoir, a cancer memoir, a veteran father memoir, a 1960s childhood memoir, a mother-daughter memoir, or a lesbian memoir. In an ambitious display of storytelling, Lanzillotto’s charming collection of vignettes encompasses all of these identities at once … L Is for Lion comes across like a bright, entertaining friend who tells the best stories—the kind you never forget.” — Lambda Literary
A 1960s Bronx tomboy learns how to survive her brutal but humorous Italian family and all the rest that life throws her. The harder you hit the pavement, the higher you fly.
This vivid memoir speaks the intense truth of a Bronx tomboy whose 1960s girlhood was marked by her father’s lullabies laced with his dissociative memories of combat in World War II. At four years old, Annie Rachele Lanzillotto bounced her Spaldeen on the stoop and watched the boys play stickball in the street; inside, she hid silver teaspoons behind the heat pipes to tap calls for help while her father beat her mother. At eighteen, on the edge of ambitious freedom, her studies at Brown University were halted by the growth of a massive tumor inside her chest. Thus began a wild, truth-seeking journey for survival, fueled by the lessons of lasagna vows, and Spaldeen ascensions. From the stoops of the Bronx to cross-dressing on the streets of Egypt, from the cancer ward at Memorial Sloan-Kettering to New York City’s gay club scene of the ’80s, this poignant and authentic story takes us from underneath the dining room table to the stoop, the sidewalk, the street, and, ultimately, out into the wide world of immigration, gay subculture, cancer treatment, mental illness, gender dynamics, drug addiction, domestic violence, and a vast array of Italian American characters. With a quintessential New Yorker as narrator and guide, this journey crescendos in a reluctant return home to the timeless wisdom of a peasant, immigrant grandmother, Rosa Marsico Petruzzelli, who shows us the sweetest essence of soul.
“…a truly inspirational story that takes us beyond gender, beyond sexual persuasion, and into the humanity that defines us all … Annie’s is a liberating story, not only in what happens to her, but in the way she tells it … L Is for Lion is an extraordinary telling of ordinary experiences in the life of a Bronx Butch.” — Fra Noi
“You need to read this book because it’s the most powerful depiction I have ever read of how a human being can draw on her folk culture, her humor, and her poetic insight to pull life-affirming meaning out of the gutter like a lost spaldeen … L Is for Lion is a luscious lasagna pulled from the hot stove that binds us together as human beings.” — Steve Zeitlin, City Lore
“Annie Rachele Lanzillotto is a vividly talented writer whose coming of age story as a Bronx Italian lesbian creates a superb memoir. Rollicking with detail, poetic in language L Is for Lion is the book you read while walking through the house or out to your mailbox, just not wanting to pause even a moment.” — San Francisco Book Review
“This sprawling narrative could be called an Italian memoir, a Bronx memoir, a cancer memoir, a veteran father memoir, a 1960s childhood memoir, a mother-daughter memoir, or a lesbian memoir. In an ambitious display of storytelling, Lanzillotto’s charming collection of vignettes encompasses all of these identities at once … L Is for Lion comes across like a bright, entertaining friend who tells the best stories—the kind you never forget.” — Lambda Literary
400 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 2013
7 people are currently reading
122 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
January 7, 2015
Part coming-of-age tale and part survival story, Annie Lanzillato’s memoir is both heart warming and heart rending. In an authentic Bronx Italian voice she will take you on a bumpy and brutally honest ride, which is at the same time joyful and life-affirming. With every bump, Annie’s inner light seems to shimmer all the more. Read this as an instruction manuel on how to live life to the hilt and with exquisite hopefulness. In other words, read it to learn how to be fully and generously human. You'll laugh too.
August 9, 2013
Story by story, a childhood grows through L is for Lion into the woman I met as Annie on Ave A, in the early 90's. My memoir of knowing her is it's own story, as is yours. Each step along the way, the past seeps into the present and Annie Lanzillotto's story collages itself into my understanding. Vortex portals into the past open surprisingly within a busy life of paying attention to one another. Dormant memories rise up like lava, deeply hidden in a being's mountain. Many ask for healing through love's potential. L is for Lion is most full of surprises for those like me, family, who think we know the woman about whom we are reading. Doesn't knowing someone happen in almost the opposite order as reading about someone? The past and future piece together strangely along the path of the present. On we walk.
The most surprising element of Annie's memoir is what it's like to be her alone. Not what happened. But what it felt like.
What it felt like to be Annie the night her sister no longer slept next to her as a child: Who knew "marriage meant we had to worry about where Peter would sleep all of a sudden"!
What it felt like to be Annie as her doctor revealed that her athletic youthful body was terribly sick.
I cry with understanding a glimmer of this truth, and thank the writer for telling it.
The most surprising element of Annie's memoir is what it's like to be her alone. Not what happened. But what it felt like.
What it felt like to be Annie the night her sister no longer slept next to her as a child: Who knew "marriage meant we had to worry about where Peter would sleep all of a sudden"!
What it felt like to be Annie as her doctor revealed that her athletic youthful body was terribly sick.
I cry with understanding a glimmer of this truth, and thank the writer for telling it.
July 31, 2013
The amazing thing about good writing is the insight into a life and soul not your own. So with Annie Lanzilloto's memoir. She described times, places, and family in exquisite detail. While I don't expect memoir to flow narratively as biography, I can't give the book 5 stars because I feel like we were missing out on why Lanzilloto decided not to pursue a career in medicine and how - if it all - she reconciles her faith and sexuality. For the reader, we experience Lanzilloto's early struggles between her lesbianism and Catholic faith, but then the issue just seems to go away. I would love to know more about this part of the author's journey.
March 18, 2013
Gimbels, OTB, cards, systems, smart, vigilant, violent, crazy loving fathers, resigned mamas, gas station glasses, spaldeens, butcher shops,the feeltaste of chainlink, The Partridge family, The Poseiden Adventure, foodlove, culottes, the mamaloshen even a GranmaRose.......even though she was at the other end of the subway map Annie pulls at my boroughed heartstrings.
March 3, 2014
This is a really long book, but I really enjoyed reading it interspersed with other books. The writing is fresh and arresting, the lines of thought deep and multi-layered, and the life described is compelling and interesting.
October 6, 2020
This memoir is a fantastic read, spanning much of the author's fascinating life, but it left me wanting more, as I know from the story itself that there is SO MUCH MORE!
Also, if you are able to access the title via audible, it is read by the author and really performed quite wonderfully. I feel it's a richer experience.
Also, if you are able to access the title via audible, it is read by the author and really performed quite wonderfully. I feel it's a richer experience.
January 16, 2019
Incredible. This is the how prose sings. This is how memoir is written--painfully and beautifully. With courage. L Is For Lion is a piece of nonfiction that will both astound and TEACH the masses.
May 22, 2021
Annie is incomparable. Her life story jumps off the page like a hard red Spaldeen wacked against some stoop in the Bronx.
October 16, 2013
L is for Lion is a memoir that will fill the reader with a sense of appreciation for the authors ability to overcome so many challenges. Annie's memoir will grab your heart and stir your soul. The reader will journey with Annie from a young girl into womanhood. Each page takes you a step closer to understanding that life is a continuous struggle and Annie overcomes every obstacle with love and respect for others. What I enjoyed most in this memoir is Annie's Bronx Voice, I heard it loud and clear with every chapter. Thank you for sharing your soul stirring story. You made me laugh, you made me cry, you helped me appreciate the simple things in life, but most of all you made me feel connected to the strong resilient people that we are both part of, " The Bronx Italian-American. " Great Work - Brava !!!
February 26, 2015
This a "can't put down" book about an Italian girl growing up in the Bronx and the very difficult life she endured with a positive outlook and the heart of a lion. If you spent your childhood in the Bronx you will love going back for a second look. Ms. Lanzillotto deals with serious issues in a straight forward, easy to read book. Thanks for sharing this very personal story. I loved it.
February 2, 2015
amazing
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews