{"product_id":"life-al-dente-laughter-and-love-in-an-italian-american-family-9781439183762","title":"Life Al Dente: Laughter and Love in an Italian-American Family","description":"With the irreverence, gutsy spirit, and warmhearted hilarity that made Pagan Babies a classic, here is the Italian-American experience served up by the author who has been crowned the Patron Saint of Humor. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eBefore the Sopranos, there were the Cascones....\u003ci\u003eLife al Dente, \u003c\/i\u003e the new memoir from the author of \u003ci\u003ePagan Babies, \u003c\/i\u003e brings the same wit and wonder to the telling of Gina Cascone's Italian-American girlhood...well, boyhood actually. In an Italian family, few things are a greater handicap than being born female, but Gina's Dad generously decided to overlook this shortcoming and raise Gina as a boy -- the son he always wanted. As lawyer to numerous \"alleged\" mobsters, Dad had some colorful clients who would regularly gather around the basement pool table to talk business, drink, and be hustled by junior high Gina. There was no way Gina was going to turn into one of the big hair girls of Italian-American stereotype, but her journey would have all the bumps that come with that cherished immigrant ambition of moving from steerage to the suburbs in three generations. That sense of dislocation came early for Gina as her family moved from the kind of neighborhood where old men play bocce and the pet frogs are named Nunzio to one where Barbies and frozen food prevail. And though Gina's brains got her into the top high school, she quickly made the lonely discovery that she was the only one there whose name ended in a vowel. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn our overly pasteurized and homogenized world, there's a real hunger to find and celebrate our connection to old world roots and traditions. \u003ci\u003eLife al Dente\u003c\/i\u003e abounds in hilarious stories, but also rewards readers with a genuine and poignant contemplation of cultural identity.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGina Cascone grew up in central New Jersey and is the author of \"Pagan Babies, Mother's Little Helper, \" and co-author of twenty-six books for children. Gina and her husband raised their two children in New Jersey and now live in Manhattan.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Atria Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50912589218066,"sku":"9781439183762","price":13.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_3364b2c6-fb71-4351-a4ce-73e6005b0f93.jpg?v=1738774751","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/life-al-dente-laughter-and-love-in-an-italian-american-family-9781439183762","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}