Guernica Editions

Madalena's detailed descriptions of the food and folkways of the Sicilian community are intended to be his resistance to the overriding themes of assimilation and conformity of the 1950s. As a student of African American history and a gay Italian American, Madalena was acutely aware that social policy makers at the time refused to acknowledge the reality of Americans' diverse ethnic and sexual identity.

Madalena worked on Confetti for Gino on and off for over ten years, submitting it to several publishers and collecting rejection slips, as well as suggestions as to what he might do to make it a publishable novel. The rejections were discouraging, but Lorenzo persevered, and the fine-tuning shows in the clarity of the writing, the forward momentum of the narrative, and the exquisitely observed details of life in Little Italy at midcentury.When most people think of "Italian-American"writing they think, of course, of The Godfather by Mario Puzo and are not aware of the substantial tradition of Italian-American writers " Pietro di Donato, John Fante, Diane DiPrima, Helen Barolini, John Ciardi, Don DeLillo, Tina De Rosa, Gilbert Sorrentino, Gay Talese, Dana Gioia, Barbara Grizzuti Harrison, and many more whose work has nothing to do with descriptions of the mafia but does give a glimpse of the lives of first-generation Italian immigrants and their families. The reappearance of Confetti for Gino happily adds the name of Lorenzo Madalena to this distinguished list.