Arthur A. Demonte

The Wooden Spoon: a Fictional Autobiographical Novel Arthur A. Demonte

The Wooden Spoon is, in essence, an "Italian Roots." The story traces the arrival of an Italian family from Sicily to America. Using actual historical events as a backdrop, we follow the family from being immigrants to fully "mainstream" Americans without them ever loosing their rich Italian culture. Because the book is based on unverified stories told around the kitchen table [hence the changing of surnames], as well as actual events, The Wooden Spoon is a compelling blend of fiction and non-fiction; a multi-cultural experience within a semi-autobiographical memoir. In many respects, it is also a woman's story as well as the primary characters are women. The books title is derived from the women cooking in the kitchen, with an ever present wooden spoon, or at the kitchen table with coffee gossiping away. You'll watch Maria and Rosario's six children grow and raise their own families; their eldest daughter's (the authors mother and grandmother) youngest child (the author) meeting the man she'll marry at the books conclusion. Along the way, the reader will bond with the family, making them their own. They'll share countless laughs and spill many tears as they spend 54 years with the family. Another property of the book is that it embraces the beloved aspects of the "Godfather" type stories with very, very little Mafia references. It was the psychodynamics of an Italian family which sustained those stories. Here, the family IS the story.