Publishers Weekly
Veteran reporter and author Ermelino (The Black Madonna; Joey Dee Gets Wise) loves to spin tales of fiery, tough-talking women, and her newest novel is no exception: its three sibling protagonists, Helen, Mary and Gracie, can toss off a hard-boiled quip with the best of them. But their grandmother Anona, who raises the Italian-American trio in the heart of New York's heavily Irish Hell's Kitchen in the 1920s and '30s, outstrips all of them. The archetypal crusty, irreverent old woman with a heart of gold, Anona has some choice words for everyone, and they're seldom pleasant. The male sex often catches the brunt of the vituperation she ladles out; as far as Anona is concerned, men are like horses: "Get yourself a good one and hope he don't die too young." Male bashing actually appears to be the raison d' tre for this novel, in which every character with an Adam's apple is either conniving, ineffectual or both. Its plot hinges upon the philandering ways of Gracie's handsome but good-for-nothing husband, Frankie Merelli, who never met a chorus girl he didn't like. Gracie lets callow Frankie run roughshod over their domestic life, but tough Mary and even tougher Helen aren't about to let an irresponsible cad get the better of their baby sister. Mary and Helen's solution to the Frankie problem is surprisingly cold-blooded, even though it's heavily foreshadowed from page one, but this is balanced nicely by Ermelino's breezy narrative style and boisterous dialogue. Agent, Elaine Markson. (June) Forecast: Ermelino is a reporter at InStyle magazine, so she should get some glossy magazine buzz, but her storytelling style is more red-sauce than Gucci. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
Library Journal
Ermelino's The Black Madonna focused on Italian American mothers in New York's Little Italy during the 1940s-60s. Her new work, which concerns three Italian American sisters during the 1920s-50s, is just as delightful yet is also different. Anona raises her three granddaughters in predominantly Irish Hell's Kitchen after their mother's death. Helen and Mary, the older girls, spend most of their time and energy protecting their younger sister, Gracie. All three women have complicated love lives. Helen's husband died young, and she now hangs out in lesbian clubs. Mary is married to a gangster. And little Gracie gets no peace from her womanizing husband. The sisters' charming companionship and hilarious dealings with men make for an enjoyable look into early immigrant life in New York City. For popular and ethnic fiction collections. Beth Gibbs, formerly with P.L. of Charlotte & Mecklenburg Cty., NC Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
InStyle reporter and Kirkus reviewer Ermelino (The Black Madonna, 2001) spins an old-fashioned tale about family solidarity and a cheating man who gets his just deserts. Mary, Helen, and Gracie Mallone were raised by grandmother Anona on the Irish West Side of New York in the 1920s and '30s. Anona's husband changed his name from Malloni to get work on the Irish-controlled piers before succumbing to the flu epidemic of 1918 that also killed the sisters' father, mother, and baby brother. The siblings grow up independent and feisty, free from the constraints imposed on girls downtown in Little Italy. Helen and Mary quickly quit school and run with a gang of kids, often dressing in boys' clothes, but when Helen is arrested, 13-year-old Mary dolls herself up and solicits the help of much-older Nick Andersen, a lieutenant of mobster Owney Madden. Nick later marries Mary; Helen, after quickly losing a drunken husband, settles into life as a good-time gal who enjoys the companionship of men and an occasional woman from the Village's shadier bars. But quieter youngest sister Gracie falls in love and marries Frankie Merelli, a good-looking, smooth-talking ne'er-do-well who spends his evenings drinking, gambling, and playing around with cigarette girls; meanwhile, his wife irons his shirts and raises their son Charlie. Anona keens over it all, lighting endless candles to her statue of St. Rita and belting down anisette as the narrative moves between Frankie's death in 1953 and the sisters' early years. An appealing, colorful picture of life in ethnic, blue-collar New York during the mid-20th century.
