Nicky D. from L.I.C.: A Narrative Portrait of Nicholas Detommaso (Portrait Series) - Softcover

Warren Lehrer

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0941920372 ISBN 13: 9780941920377

Publisher: Bay Press, 1995

Synopsis

Book by Lehrer, Warren, Shtern, Adele

About this title

From Publishers Weekly:

In this 4"x101/2" volume, writer and designer Lehrer (i mean you know) tries to recreate the hyperkinetic, run-on speech of the 72-year-old retired dockworker Nicholas DeTommaso from Long Island City, Queens. When the material is fresh and interesting--which is more often than not--the changing fonts and sizes and the zigzagging typesetting are effective, but when the material is stale (as with the recipes for meatballs and marinara sauce), they cannot save it. Nicky D. seems unaware that the camera is rolling, so to speak, as he talks about his life. Because of osteomyelitis, he spent eight years of his childhood in the pediatric ward of an orthopedic hospital. When he returned home, his brothers beat him up, which was a shock after the sheltered world of the hospital. ``They made a frankenstein outta me.'' ``Marriage never was meant for me,'' says DeTommaso, ``i stuck with my mother she was the only lady i ever lived with except for my one big mistake in 1950,'' when he was married for six weeks. DeTommaso is often vulgar and not racially sensitive (``if you gotta kill somebody kill somebody who's the same color as you or else everybody's gonna make a big to-do about it''). Still, throughout the book, readers will be aware that this is DeTommaso as reconstituted by Lehrer--with the subtle emphases of type placement, changes in typeface, lack of punctuation and capitalization and the ever-present transliteration (gotta, gonna, etc.).

Copyright 1995 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Review:

"Articulated with enormous feeling and care by an author with an ear superbly attuned to the cadences of spoken language." -- Rick Poyner, Frieze

"One of the most imaginative book artists of our time." -- Richard Kostelanetz, American Book Review

"Pioneering work in 'visual literature' ...the look of the words on the page is as important as the words themsleves." --David Warner, Philadelphia City Paper

"So alive, so vibrant...I was sure I was hearing the voice of this remarkable storyteller/philosopher...Absolutely Delightful!" --Shanta Nurullah, The Bloomsbury Review

"The arrival of the first set of Warren Lehrer's Portrait Series is something of an event... absolutely defining and unmistakable." --Paul Zelevansky, JAB (The Journal of Artists’ Books)

About this edition

• Publisher: Bay Press
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0941920372
• ISBN 13: 9780941920377
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 261
• Illustrator: Warren Lehrer