Eat Now; Talk Later: 52 True Tales of Family, Feasting, and the American Experience
James Vescovi, 2014
AuthorHouse
pp. 158
ISBN-13: 9781491831489
Summary
Unlike many memoirs, Eat Now; Talk Later doesn’t focus on a radically dysfunctional family; rather it celebrates the breadth of family life: struggle, humor, misunderstanding, and loyalty.
The book revolves around Desolina Vescovi, and her husband, Tony, who arrived in America in the 1920s—only to find they’d collided with the modern world. Born around 1900, on farms where little had changed for hundreds of years, the couple was stumped by telephones, banks, fast food, TV wrestling, and supermarkets.
It was up to their only child, a son, to serve as their shepherd, and it wasn’t easy. For example, how could he explain to his mother that his job was taking him and his family 700 miles away when, in her day, sons stayed put to work the family farm? Or that it wasn’t wise to hide $10,000 cash in the bedroom? How could he explain to his father that his grandson was attending graduate school, when Tony himself had quit school in the third grade to work in the fields?
It is not only the topic that’s original, but the way Tony and Desolina’s life is recounted: through fifty-two stories recalling incidents and ideas that reveal their character. Several of the stories previously appeared in publications such as The New York Times, Creative Nonfiction, Newsday, and Ancestry Magazine.
The book’s title comes from my grandmother, who disliked conversation during meals. To her, eating was sacred. Conversing while eating tortellini was like talking loudly during mass. You just didn’t do it. And you don’t have to be Italian to appreciate these stories, which have a universal quality about them because most of us have grandparents or aunts who are far behind the times
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Prepare yourself for a feast consumed in delicious bites. Stories in this collection can be read before bed, on a lunch hour, or waiting in line. They can even be shared with friends who complain they have enough to read. And don’t miss the scrapbook of unusual family photos and recipes
Author Bio
• Birth—June 14, 1960
• Where—New York, New York, USA
• Raised—Kalamazoo, Michigan
• Education—B.A., Miami University of Ohio; M.A., Columbia University
• Currently—lives in New York City
James Vescovi’s essays about his eccentric grandparents have appeared in The New York Times, Alimentum Journal: The Literature of Food, Creative Nonfiction, Newsday, Gazzetta Italiana, the anthology Our Roots Are Deep with Passion: New Essays by Italian-American Writers (Other Press), and other venues.
His fiction and essays been published in Midwestern Gothic, The New York Observer, the Georgetown Review, and Natural Bridge. He teaches high school English and lives in New York with his wife and three children. On warm Saturday afternoons, you can find him in his volunteer garden in Riverside Park trying desperately to make things grow. (From the author.)
Visit the author's website.
Follow James on Facebook.
Discussion Questions
1. How do you think the author handled the portrayal of his grandparents? Was it honest? Patronizing? True to life?
2. Do you think the writer used the right structure in this memoir—telling about the lives of his grandparents through 52 stories, as opposed to a straight narrative. Why or why not?
3. Did any of these stories help you recall past, but important incidents involving your own family?
4. The author and his father do a great deal of caretaking of these elderly people? Is that a model we should aspire to, or do we simply live in a modern society where professionals must do this caretaking?
5. Immigration is a hot topic in the news today. Does this book—directly or indirectly—have anything to say about America’s immigration issues?
6. Did this book teach you anything about collecting your own family stories (even if not for publication)? If so, how?
7. If you could pick one story or passage that had a profound effect on you—was illuminating, significant, especially amusing—what would it be?
8. If there’s anything you could have added or subtracted from this book, what would it be?
(Questions courtesy of the author.)