Say That To My Face: Fiction by David Prete


Say That To My Face: Fiction
Title : Say That To My Face: Fiction
Author :
Rating :
ISBN : 0393057984
ISBN-10 : 9780393057980
Language : English
Format Type : Hardcover
Number of Pages : 188
Publication : First published September 1, 2003

Yonkers, New York, finds its place on the literary map of America. Transcending all the limitations of "ethnic literature" and mobster stereotyping, David Prete flawlessly (and seemingly effortlessly) nails Italian-American life to the page and elevates it to a new place in American writing.

Say That to My Face introduces us to Joey Frascone and his family and friends in the tense, violent, racially divided Yonkers of the Seventies and Eighties. His childhood segmented between four homes and his teenage dreams pulling him towards the challenge and excitement of New York City, Joey is a handsome kid whose intense and conflicting loyalties threaten to tear him apart. Whether responding to the crush of a motherless girl whose sister he adores; flirting with danger during the terrifying summer of mass-murderer "Son of Sam"; cheating his teammates of a victory to save a friend on the ballfield; watching his mother play softball against his father ("in her lovely red dress, she pretended to fix her crotch and spit out a wad of chewing tobacco... With one shake of her ass in the batter's box of a church parking lot, my mother dropped thirty years"); or struggling with the mind-blowing high of a lifetime while running drugs from Jamaica, Frascone wins the reader's steadfast allegiance as he tries to figure out where his own truest loyalties lie.

Capturing people in flux between their better and worse selves, David Prete is one outstanding storyteller. With hilarious, thrilling, and painful accuracy, he evokes the color and poignancy and humor of Italian-American speech and the characters who use it. Like barman Frank Gianguzzi, whose favorite term of affection is "coog," from the Italian "cugino," or cousin, or any of its variations: "coog-o, coogini, coogette, coogie coog, coog a'bell, coog a'brut." Or Benny Colangelo, the quintessential neighborhood guy, "emanating his future. A future of work, neighborhood, family, and the beautiful poetry of routine." Or Joey's butcher grandfather, scratching his grandson's back with his thick, heavy butcher's nails, as he yells, "Look at the prince here." Or his Uncle Gingy, whose motto ― "the one thing you don't mess with is family"-doesn't seem to apply to how he treats his wife.

Having come of age among characters as memorable as any in Faulkner's Mississippi, Joey finds that even when he escapes Yonkers for the sophisticated city sparkling at the other side of the bridge, his past isn't forgotten: the past isn't even past.


Say That To My Face: Fiction Reviews


  • Amy

    So I found an advance copy at the Friends of the Library Bookstore and I thought it looked interesting so I bought it. Not sure how an advanced copy differs from the final product so maybe it's not fair to comment unless I find out they are incredibly similar (which I assume they are, but we all know what assuming does.) I found the book incredibly meh. Do with it what you will.

  • Jimmy

    A pretty unassuming book about a boy/young man from an Italian family growing up in Yonkers. Easy to read and enjoyable.

  • Jami

    the book started out okay. But the end annoyed me. i didn't know what the hell happened.. it was like it just ended randomly...