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WEBSITE REVIEW: Feeling Italian: The Art of Ethnicity in America By Thomas J. Ferraro New York University Press, 2005. 256 pp. In Feeling Italian: The Art of Ethnicity in America, Thomas J. Ferraro explores the subject of Italian American identity through art and literature. As he explains, in this series of essays, he sets out to "to examine the evolution and persistence of Italian Americanness . . . [and] . . . how it influenced the nation at large." Beginning with the great migration of early Italian Americans and continuing into the present day, Ferraro writes about various Italian American artists and icons as he attempts to answer the questions: "Who are Italian Americans today?" "How did they get this way?" "What remains recognizably different about Italian forms of Americanness?"' In doing so, Ferraro writes an engaging, interesting, and challenging book that combines history, critical theory, and personal experience and observation. To begin this collection, Ferraro writes about Maria Barbella and Idanna Pucci's novel about her entitled The Trials of Maria Barbella. In 1895, Maria Barbella, an Italian immigrant to the United States, was "the first woman in the world to be sentenced to die in the electric chair." She had been found guilty of the murder of Domenico Cataldo. Her trial had been an international sensation, drawing interest and protests from many parts of the world, including, of course, Italy. She had confessed to the murder, claiming that Cataldo had ruined her reputation when he seduced her and failed to live up to his promise of marriage. As Ferraro points out, the story of "Maria, the murdering seamstress" became a tabloid sensation, but upon further examination, it reveals the clash of two cultures: Italian and American. Barbella had exacted her justice according to Italian values and mores, but she was tried and condemned in American courts. Pucci's novel, according to Ferraro, positions itself to show Barbella as the true victim of the story, a victim of immoral seduction, a victim of the American justice system, and a victim of the public's perceptions of Italian Americans as hot tempered and primal. However, before she was executed, progressives of the era, finding a cause to champion in Barbella, stepped in and rescued her. Lawyers were hired that successfully had Barbella's original sentence overturned on grounds of temporary insanity. Pucci's novel and Barbella's story show the difficulty of integrating two very different cultures with seemingly conflicting value systems and senses of justice. One of Ferraro's other essays muses on Frank Sinatra's legacy. He explains that Sinatra never tried to hide or dismiss his Italian American culture while all the while gaining great popularity among more mainstream America, which loved his voice and music. As the author notes, Sinatra was able "to hold the American masses spellbound without becoming whitewashed." His music was popular and mainstream, but his image was from the margin. He may have captured audiences from the upper-crust, but he embodied the values of the Italian American ghetto neighborhood, and most importantly, he never apologized for it. In doing so, Sinatra made it easier to be ethnic in America. One could appropriate mainstream America - as Sinatra did by singing American popular music - while still remaining distinctly ethnic. Sinatra would have it both, and if one objected, Sinatra didn't care, making it easier for later Italian Americans - and I would say other ethnic groups - to have it both ways. One could be both American and Italian. This perhaps changed what it meant to be American. Ferraro's essays with their blend of literary and cultural analysis will challenge most everyday readers. (I found myself re-reading many of them to get a full appreciation of his ideas.) Interestingly, his vocabulary and style are at once both academic and common, and he mixes cultural theory with personal experience and emotion to form a unique style. In later essays in the collection, Ferraro explores such entertainers as Madonna, films such as Moonstruck and Big Night, and television shows such as The Sopranos. In each, the author places the person or work within a cultural context, exploring and examining how Italian Americans changed what it meant to be American. Ultimately, he claims,"The painters and writers and musicians and filmmakers examined herein were working in American contexts in significantly Italian ways, using Italian or Italian American materials to create an Italianate sensibility in the United States." While Italian Americans desired to be part of mainstream America, they also found a "United States which they discovered could be remolded, handsomely, in their own image." Italian Catholic Federation, 8393 Capwell Drive, Suite 110, Oakland CA 94621 tel: 888/ICF-1924; 510/633-9058; fax: 510/633-9758; Email: info@icf.org Website designed by HYPERSPHERE