What do six guys raised during the 50s in an old italian genealogy neighborhood in Philadelphia think about modern-day values in America? Join them on September 6, 2001 at La Strega Restaurant in New York’s Little Italy for their annual dinner, during which they serve up strong opinions and barbs on subjects such as politics, sex, family stability, divorce, abortion, culture, italian genealogy, and food.
The boys’ festa at La Strega includes a new, first-time guest, Genella, the sensual, vivacious, girlfriend of the recently deceased Rocco, one of the old italian genealogy gang. Genella brings a singularly unique perspective to the table: She’s not Italian and is a “big-time madam dealing with big-time clients on the fancy side of Manhattan.” Her views on everything from sexual perversions to abortion keep the boys on their collective toes.
Read Old italian genealogy Neighborhood Values and be a “fly on the wall” as the gang of testadure…or hardheads….try valiantly to persuade and dissuade each other. The conversation at La Strega this evening may become heated and even, at times, x-rated, but never dull. And always enlightening.
It expressed values – like respect and saving money -- which her grandparents had but that weren’t passed on to her generation. Jennifer felt that the book is a gem for women because it gives women insight into what strong men think. Inside information women usually don’t get.
Luigi, the Dean of a prominent medical school and first generation Italian physician, “I read your guys italian genealogy madam” book. It was hard to put down. I resonate with the part about one of the boys negotiating a bargain with God to help a loved one get out of trouble – I still do it!
Stephen L. DeFelice, M.D. is the founder and chairman of FIM, The Foundation for Innovation in Medicine, a nonprofit educational organization whose mission is to help accelerate medical discovery in order to reduce unnecessary suffering and premature death primarily due to disease. He believes that the potential weapons of modern technology have the capacity to dramatically reduce the impact of many diseases, including aging, but the barriers to conducting clinical studies to test them are prohibitively costly.
In the tradition of Plato's Symposium, Dante’s Il Convivio, and more recently, Frank Lentricchia’s Music of the Inferno, De Felice’s italian genealogy dinner conversations provide a sense of spiritual renewal through a remembrance of things past. Old Italian Neighborhood Values is required reading for anyone who has grown up in a Little Italy; those who didn’t will wish they had. In a time when people are leaving little Italys left and right, DeFelice’s imagination has given us all a way back home.
