I Love You Like a Tomato - Hardcover

Giordano, Marie

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0765306689 ISBN 13: 9780765306685

Publisher: Forge Books, 2003

Synopsis

I, Letticia ChiChi Maggiordino, will put to GOOD use the power of the Evil Eye...

ChiChi Maggiordino will do anything to get God's attention. She will hold her breath, stand on tiptoe for an hour, walk a mile backward, climb all stairs on her knees... anything. When her grandmother teaches her how to use the Evil Eye, telling her it's how Jesus Christ made his miracles and how the Italians got rid of Mussolini, ChiChi realizes it's what her prayers have been missing. Now she can get started on the business of making her mother happier by helping her find love, and healing her brother's weak lungs.

But ChiChi's family lives in Minneapolis, and it's the 1950s. For an Italian immigrant family, sometimes it seems like nothing can make life easier. ChiChi's mother still pines for her husband, a long-dead American soldier; ChiChi's brother is disdainful of her sacrifices and penance-he doesn't understand what his older sister already knows, that sometimes God needs to be bribed.

When her grandmother passes away, ChiChi steps up her search for meaning and happiness, but it seems to be fruitless. And she struggles, the way so many women do, because her love for her family is suffocating, even while it fulfills her.

It's not until she meets two Italian dwarves, and they teach her of the ancient clown tradition, the commedia dell'arte, that she comes to understand that in order to make everyone else happy, she herself must be happy.

But first she must find her own way in the world... and learn to accept that not even the power of the Evil Eye can keep people from changing.

About this title

About the Author

Marie Giordano has authored more than thirty works of nonfiction, children's books, and poetry under the names Marie Chapian and Marie Jordan. Her most recent book of poetry, Slow Dance on Stilts, won the Award of Excellence from the San Diego Book Awards Association in 2001. I Love You Like a Tomato is her first novel. She currently lives in southern California, where she teaches creative writing and poetry at Mira Costa College.

Review

“Sweet and sad, poignant and hilarious... A coming-of-age novel that stands full and alive and well worth the read.” –Bret Lott, New York Times bestselling author of Jewel

“I Love You Like a Tomato is by turns sweet and sad, poignant and hilarious—in short, the perfect blend one looks for in a good book. Combine this fact with ChiChi's wonderfully true voice, and we end up with a coming-of-age novel that stands full and alive and well worth the read. Three cheers!”—Bret Lott, New York Times bestselling author of the Oprah Book Club pick Jewel

“I Love You Like a Tomato is a brilliant book about the immigrant experience, but it is far more than that. Marie Giordano has a special gift for the first person voice, giving her narrator, ChiChi, a ravishingly eloquent sensual consciousness and the best sort of wit, based on fresh and true observation of how we all live our lives. As a result, we deeply and personally share this family's experiences. In short, I Love You Like a Tomato is both a delightful read and a true work of art.”--Robert Olen Butler; author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain

“An original voice, an incredible talent. Every word shines like a polished tomato. Giordano stirs her unique words and phrases without once letting a pot burn dry.... Her use of language is in the tradition of Annie Proulx, Arundhati Roy, and Toni Morrison. I loved this book!”—David C. Fickett, author of Nectar

“Marie Giordano has written a wondrous book heaped high with joy and sorrow, warm and spicy as a bowl of meatball zuppa. I’ve long since closed the book, but the characters have been walking around with me ever since.”—Greg Garrett, author of Free Bird

About this edition

• Publisher: Forge Books
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0765306689
• ISBN 13: 9780765306685
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 480