When the World Was Young

by Tony Romano

Book Overview

In Chicago, in the summer of 1957, Italian immigrants Angela Rosa and Agostino Peccatori are caught between worlds, as they cling to old-country ways in an era of upending change. Angela Rosa must cope with the building tension--exacerbated by Agostino's wandering eye--of raising five U.S.-born children who are struggling to define themselves within a family rooted in old-world tradition. But the events of a single tragic evening are about to bring...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060857935
• ISBN13: 9780060857936
• Release Date: June 2008
• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 1.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.4" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

I Love This Book

Tony Romano has captured the essence of Chicago's Italian experience in When the World Was Young. No, wait, Romano has captured the essence of the HUMAN EXPERIENCE in his first novel. I love the relationship between the priest and the daughter. Their scenes together are striking. But the best thing about When the World Was Young is its literary value. After I read it the first time, I went back and marked all the passages that I would mark if reading Faulkner or Shakespeare. My book has lots of marks! Rumor has it that Romano is working on a second novel with some of the same characters. That will be great. If you want a great read, buy this book.

A book for people with hearts.

Debut novelist Tony Romano pays a rare attention to the human heart in When the World was Young. As he takes you from the new world of Chicago to an old world at the foot of the Apennines and back again, you will follow his characters into backrooms and backseats-through their sins and kindnesses-like sneaky cousins, to find in the end that the journey was as much a journey for you as it was for the Peccatori family; for Romano's characters-like his readers-neither sin, nor love, neither confess nor forgive, without question. He reminds us all that we are fed on more than the milk and bread of our mothers and fathers. Their histories, too, have grown us; the ones they carry like public sadness and the ones they mean to keep secret as well. In When the World was Young, Romano will make you wonder about the secrets coursing like blood through your own veins.

Like An Italian Style Meal: Warm, Relaxed, and Filling

To begin, you should know the story is set in Chicago's Italian sector in 1957 and follows the life of an immigrant family (well the parents anyway, the kids are first-gen Americans and the culture gap is massive) as they undergo and try to make sense of a series of tragic events that are only curtailed by deception and unspoken agreements. Agostino & his wife Angela Rosa are trapped in a relatively loveless, once arranged marriage - Agostino is prone to giving into his desire for other women while Angela Rosa's life is wrapped up in being a mother, not a wife. Their children are a different story altogether - focusing primarily on the two eldest, the just and determined Santo, and the wild and rambunctious Victoria. I can't pinpoint the main focus of the story without giving away too much, but basically the two children and their parent's affairs are inextricably linked through a series of tragic events and a group of lies woven to keep the family structure together, particularly after a tragic event early on. The plot weaves between a few 'future flashes' from the other three son's perceptions in 1977/78, twenty years after the story's main events take place. Although at first I was confused at this - the other son's reflections give away a good deal of what happens in the chapters set in 1957 - I found they provided a valuable way of puzzling together the plot, culminating in what I call 'lightbulb moments' where all of a sudden I'd be like "OH that makes so much more sense now". Because the three youngest siblings are the ones telling their perspective of what happened in the 50's, it makes the story far more interesting because they were far less informed than the four main characters. Overall this was a pretty enjoyable book - the prose was a bit drawn out and stuffy at times, but I found I could easily breeze through the 300-odd pages quite quickly. I think I would have liked for *more* to happen, at least more often, rather than inexplicity stated in flash forwards or flash backs, but looking back the book does pack a LOT into it. A decent read if you're interested in family drama and the irony of deception.

Not Norman Rockwell's Little Italy

I thoroughly enjoyed Mr. Romano's book, not just because it speaks of a family culture and neighborhood with which I am familiar, but also because he tells a story that reflects lives objectively rather than romantically. His characters have flaws, suffer, and yet within each is the nobility of being human. There are several surprises in the book that the reader (I, at least) didn't anticipate. A good read!

Astounding first novel!

This is a book that I could not put down. I became so completely immersed in the lives of the Peccatori family. Everyone in the family was so beautifully rendered by the author. I highly recommend this book. It has heart, wisdom and enormous compassion for the failings of human beings.