Review: Up from nothing . . .
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 01 18, 2014
Delila at age thirteen is raped by a would-be-client of her harlot mother in Genoa, escapes with her consumptive mother and mother’s lover Maurizio, buries her mother at sea, travels to New York and then Chicago.  At fourteen she has Maurizio’s baby, suffers her baby’s disappearance, leaves Maurizio to take up work cleaning up at a beauty parlor, then agrees to work at a high-class brothel in an agreement with the madam that she will take over and manage the business after a year’s apprenticeship.  And this is just the first few chapters of Delila/Giulietta’s fascinating story spanning the years from 1905 to the 1920’s in gangster-infested Chicago.  Her mother Editta always wanted her to marry and live a life of ease and plenty.  To what extent Giulietta approaches realization of that goal is what Giacoletto’s novel is about.  It is also about a brainy, resourceful woman making her way in a cold world with no resources but her own wits.