Not The Average Italian Immigrant Story | The Fortunate Pilgrim

Moving story of an Italian family where the woman holds the power | The Fortunate Pilgrim | Mario Puzo

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	• The Fortunate Pilgrim Mario Puzo Ballantine Books, 2004 - 304 pages average customer review:based on 38 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Puzo's favorite, with good reason.

Although it doesn't have the most compelling start, it doesn't take long to warm up to the family in 'The Fortunate Pilgrim'. This is a sad account of early 1900s America, when being an immigrant was noble instead of criminal. Mario Puzo truly brings their suffering and hardships to life. If you've read 'The Godfather' you could be forgiven for thinking this will be a story of a family's fierce loyalty to each other, despite their shared poverty. Not so. Relationships are strained, affections grow and wither, bonds are strengthened and severed. Like animals, they have to keep fighting the cruel uncertainty of poverty. Puzo dispenses with all sentiment; in order to be sentimental, there has to be some good times along the way. And time is not kind to many of these characters. I've read a couple of entertaining but ultimately shallow Mario Puzo novels ('The Fourth K' and 'Fools Die'), but I won't soon forget the sadness of 'The Fortunate Pilgrim'.

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Not The Average Italian Immigrant Story

Thanks in part of authors like Puzo, our vision of the turn of the century Italian immigrant involves the Mafia. While this is no exception, the role is minimal, the afterthought that one would expect when reading about a family just trying to survive together in the face of multiple disasters.

Puzo creates wonderful characters, and plants the reader so firmly into their lives, it's nearly impossible not to become invested in the ups and downs player experiences. This book also does a good job of creating a contrast between what poverty means today, and what it meant during the 1920's and 30's.

If you enjoyed the "Godfather," or any other Italian-American fiction, this is a must-read. It will give you the other side of the Mafia-based story, the one where a mother simply tries to feed her children and give them a better life on the way.

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Moving story of an Italian family where the woman holds the power

Enjoyed THE FORTUNATE PILGRIM by Mario Puzo, written before
THE GODFATHER . . . this one also looks at the Italian-American
experience, but from the perspective of a family where the woman
holds the power.

I was moved by the story of Lucia Santa and her journey from the
mountain farms of Italy to the streets of New York . . . she hoped
for a better life, but instead found herself living in Hell's Kitchen
and in a bad marriage where she had to raise six children
on her own.

Their lives also fascinated me, as did Puzzo's description of
what like was life in the twenties, thirties and forties . . . it made
me feel like I was actually there--right with the characters.

After the novel was over, I wondered how come it never was
made into a major movie . . . I did found out that THE FORTUNATE
PILGRIM was instead made into a TV mini-series in 1988, starring
Sophia Loren and Edward James Olmos . . . so I now know what
I'll be watching when I rent my next DVD!

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VERY GOOD

THIS A VERY GOOD BOOK. SHOWS HOW HARD WE ITALAIANS HAD IT IN THOSE DAY WHEN OUR PARENTS AND GRANDPARENTS HAD TO COME OVER HERE. VERY GOOD ENDING!

Amazing Story

I suppose like a lot of other people I started reading Mario Puzo book the Godfather and just loved the story. I wasn't happy with "The Silician", but I was surprised by this book: "The Fortunate Pilgrim". For a brief summary, this is the story of Lucia Santa an immigrant from Italy living in New York City during the 1930's. Lucia has six children and a bad marriage. Mario Puzo descriptions of the section known as Hells Kitchen are amazing and his detail of the city and hardships that Lucia must endure is awesome. Overall, this book turned out to be one of my favorite Mario Puzo novels and I would highly recommend it.

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efore The Godfather and The Last Don, there was Puzo's classic story about the loves, crimes and struggles confronted by one family of New York City immigrants living in Hell's Kitchen. Fresh from the farms in Italy, Lucia Santa struggles to hold her family together in a strange land. At turns poignant, comic and violent, and with a new preface by the author, The Fortunate Pilgrim is Italian-American fiction at its very best.

From the Hardcover edition.

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

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