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Breath of the Onion: Italian-American Anecdotes is a three-part collection of forty-eight prose pieces and a few old, family recipes. A handful of Italian characters, some of whom immigrate to Illinois, are celebrated. The story begins in a twelfth century Tuscan mountain village in the 1940s. Part two covers the narrators short visit to Italy after forty years and the changes he finds, even in that ancient and isolated mountain village. Part three is about life in the suburbs west of Chicago and about the pressures the new world imposes on an ethnic culture. Language, customs, and values are affected and modified, often with humor and a new understanding.
About the author
Franco Pagnucci, Emeritus Professor of English at UW-P, has published storytelling books for teachers and students and four volumes of poetry: a chapbook Imprints of Your Tires on Damp Sand (2012); Ancient Move (1998); I Never Had a Pet (1992); Out Harmsen's Way (1991); as well as two poetry anthologies: New Roads Old Towns (1988) and Face the Poem (1979). His essays have appeared in such publications as The Christian Science Monitor and Commonweal. Poems of his have been published in many periodicals and anthologies, including: News of the Universe, American Voices, and the Best American Poetry, 1999. He and Susan Pagnucci, a paper artist, live in the lake country of northern Wisconsin, where they work on handmade poetry books.
