Tapestry by Maria Pallotta-Chiarolli

Tapestry by Maria Pallotta-Chiarolli
© 1999 Maria Pallotta-Chiarolli
ISBN 0 09 183872 X
Random House

Just as there are so many people in the United States who think that, at this point, Italian-Americans are just American, many people think the same of Italian-Australians.

The truth is that Italians are still Italian, no matter where they were born and raised. I call us all italo-stranieri, Italian-foreigners.

And for me, as an Italian-American living in Italy, this book, Tapestry, is a friend. Although it’s 267 pages long, I gobbled it up in one day.

 But it’s a book that would be interesting and important to anyone, not only those who are living in countries where their parents or grandparents emigrated to, but also to anyone who doesn’t quite fit in or to anyone who has a heart and a soul.

 Aptly named, it’s written in the form of a tapestry. There are no chapters. There are only bite-size bits of stories, stories of Italian immigrants in Australia, stories of those who remained in Italy, stories of people left out, carefully placed in relation to each other. From her grandparents who never left Italy, from her immigrant parents in Australia, from her second-generation self, from her third-generation daughter, her stories, her impressions, her feelings weave in and out in a tapestry anyone can recognize.

 By saying, at the beginning of the book, “I can show you only what I see and what my fingertips touch. What will you see and touch?” she includes you (yes, you) in the book. In fact, inclusion is the most important part of her work.

 Maria Pallotta-Chiarolli is a senior lecturer in the School of Health Sciences at Deakin University, researching, for many years, in the areas of gender, ethnicity and sexuality. But, although she knows what she’s talking about, this book is not stuffy. It’s very readable, readable enough to make you feel every emotion you’ve ever known. There are difficult truths here and there is joy.

Buy this book. Read it carefully. You need it.

I, myself, am looking forward to reading it many more times.

Some contact and ordering information for this as well as other books by Maria Pallotta-Chiarolli:

mariapc@deakin.edu.au
www.seekbooks.com.au
www.ipgbook.com
www.booktopia.com.au
www.dymocks.com.au

 And, of course, there’s always Amazon.