Author: John Medici

Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform

Published: 2017-09-22

Total Pages: 244

ISBN-13: 9781548478315

In Pleasant Avenue, John Medici chronicles his growing up experience as the son of Italian immigrants in NYC's East Harlem. During his early years post WW II, the forties, fifties, and sixties, he witnessed great social changes. As he matured, Medici bristled against the isolationism in his Italian American neighborhood, often feeling trapped between modern society and the religious culture which his parents and community cherished. His book is a candid examination of the psychological burden he carried during his first thirty years to both honor his parents and live his own life. Medici peppers his work with humorous anecdotes about family, neighborhood and his conflict adjusting to East Harlem's bygone world of childhood. Pleasant Avenue also reveals his struggles to come to terms with the Roman Catholic Church's teachings, which led to a stint as a novice in a Franciscan seminary. On top of adjusting to cultural heritage and creating an identity, Medici had to cope with the alcoholism that ran in his family. That is a different, darker legacy that he couldn't completely reject. At the center of Pleasant Avenue is an honesty about family, culture, heritage, and values that is usually covered over by sentimental nostalgia. Medici's story is honest, revealing, and powerful.