Bitter Greens: Essays on Food, Politics, and Ethnicity from the Imperial Kitchen (SUNY Series in Italian/American Culture)
"With much dash, artistry, originality, keen politics, and classic erudition, Di Renzo takes the reader on a witty and heartfelt romp through history, gastronomy, and the ethnic experience. You don't have to be Italian to enjoy this appetizing and engaging book. Bravo, Antonio!" --Michael Parenti, author ofGod and His Demons and Contrary Notions: The Michael Parenti Reader"What a treat this book is! Shaped by extraordinary scholarship and simmered in cosmopolitan wisdom, Bitter Greens is at once a memoir, a culinary history, and a social commentary. And Anthony Di Renzo's prose is mouth-wateringly delicious, his stories both savory and bittersweet." --Sandra M. Gilbert, coauthor ofThe Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination, Second Edition"Part history of food, part personal essay, part tour of Italy (both ancient and modern) as well as New York, Di Renzo's Bitter Greens is a delightful, entertaining book that takes the form of a delectable multicourse meal. It is a smart and engaging work you'll be sure to talk about; a pleasure you'll want to share with family and friends." --Tony Ardizzone, author ofIn the Garden of Papa Santuzzu: A Novel"Given the many cartoonish depictions of Italian American culture (and no aspect of that culture is more lampooned than its relationship to food), Bitter Greens is a welcome tonic. Di Renzo's essays, with their wide-ranging erudition, make food the launching pad for his explorations of the big questions of family, memory, and self. And they show how the answers to so many of these questions lie at the bottom of a bowl of macaroni or inside the casing of a salame." --Lucia Perillo, author ofInseminating the ElephantandI've Heard the Vultures Singing: Field Notes on Poetry, Illness, and Nature"Anthony Di Renzo has written a scrumptious book: part history, part memoir, part travel guide, part cookbook, in prose as savory and chewy as a serving ofPuntarelle con Salsa di Alici. ButBitter Greensis more than a side dish: it's a multiple-course feast of erudition." --Peter Selgin, author ofLife Goes to the Movies: A Novel