The End: A novel
by Salvatore Scibona
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Book Summary Information
Author: Salvatore ScibonaEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-05-13
ISBN: 1555974988
Number of pages: 320
Publisher: Graywolf Press
Book Reviews of The End: A novel
Book Review: A lyrical evocation of--yes--Cleveland
Summary: 5 Stars
"The End" is an interesting book, very much worth reading. It also requires a patient reader. It is the story of one day, Assumption Day, August 15, 1953, in Elephant Park, a section of Cleveland settled by Italian immigrants. However, the narrative structure is not chronological; it moves backward and forward in time and ends with a chapter entitled "The Present Moment: 1915." The lives of characters overlap, often in ways that at first are not entirely clear. The inside flap of the cover even offers an explanation of the novel's structure by appending a passage from the novel itself: "Distant events have thrown us into long, comet-like orbits, far from our origins, bur eventually we will circle back on people whose lives preceded and gave rise to our own." The first 65 pages belong to the baker, Rocco LaGrassa, but he then disappears from the story for a long time. Two chapters are devoted to a mystery involving a jeweler. The elderly woman at the center of the book, Costanza Marini, is the most complex character, but even she cannot be fully understood until the novel's end.
Scibona's depiction of an immigrant community in flux, under pressures arising from racial conflict, changing social and cultural mores, and differences between first and second generation perspectives is lyrical, poetical. As a reader, you feel that you have been transported to times and places now lost. However, "The End" is not a book to pick up and put down too many times; if your reading is interrupted by the usual interference (work, weariness, lack of time) you may find yourself repeatedly going back a few pages to pick up the narrative thread. The effect of reading "The End" is a bit like listening to music; when you remove your bookmark and begin to read, you may have to wait a little (as you read) before you can hear the melody line again.
Summary of The End: A novel
A brilliant debut novel about a single day in 1953 as lived by six people at an ohio carnival
A small, incongruous man receives an excruciating piece of news. His son has died in a POW camp in Korea. It is August 15, 1953, the day of a tumultuous street carnival in Elephant Park, an Italian immigrant enclave in Ohio. The man is Rocco LaGrassa, and his many years of dogged labor, paternal devotion, and steadfast Christian faith are about to come to a crashing end. He is the first of many exquisitely drawn characters we meet that day, each of whom will come to their own conclusion.
The End follows an elderly abortionist, an enigmatic drapery seamstress, a teenage boy, a jeweler?dramatically into the heart of a crime that will twist all their lives. Against a background of immigration, broken loyalties, and racial hostility, we at last return to August 15, 1953, and see everything Rocco saw?and vastly more?through the eyes of various characters in the crowds.
The End is the unforgettable debut of a singular new American novelist.
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