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The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna
by Juliet Grames
This novel reckons with the struggles of life in a plain but peaceful enough homeland upended suddenly by early 1900s immigration to America by force. The subservient expectations of a woman who comes from an Italian heritage upheld alongside slightly more liberal New World ideas. The withstanding pain of keeping familial ties with despicable people and those you must protect from harm.
Stella Fortuna suffers greatly over the course of her long life, longing for freedom from wretchedness and a father she despises. She survives horrifying situations and avoids terrifying death, though not unscathed physically or in memory.
This is not a happy story by any measure. But it feels very real and claimed my attention immediately. It is not shy in exposing the hard labor and sacrifice made by a a family that lived through famine and poverty, through abuse and the sudden upending of their whole lives, through tragedy and death. This could very nearly mirror the lives of many early immigrants that founded Italian-American families.
Despite my high rating, I feel obligated to mention this book contains scenes of rape and incest, though not in particularly haunting graphic detail. Anyone sensitive to these topics may be better off pursuing a different book, as the effects of these scenes remains with the victims over the course of the story.
Stella Fortuna suffers greatly over the course of her long life, longing for freedom from wretchedness and a father she despises. She survives horrifying situations and avoids terrifying death, though not unscathed physically or in memory.
This is not a happy story by any measure. But it feels very real and claimed my attention immediately. It is not shy in exposing the hard labor and sacrifice made by a a family that lived through famine and poverty, through abuse and the sudden upending of their whole lives, through tragedy and death. This could very nearly mirror the lives of many early immigrants that founded Italian-American families.
Despite my high rating, I feel obligated to mention this book contains scenes of rape and incest, though not in particularly haunting graphic detail. Anyone sensitive to these topics may be better off pursuing a different book, as the effects of these scenes remains with the victims over the course of the story.