The milk of almonds

In this sumptuous feast of poetry, stories, and memoir, more than fifty Italian American women writers offer loving celebrations and piercing critiques of every facet of Italian American culture. Familiar stock images of the nurturant grandmother lovingly stirring the sauce and the domineering mother wielding wooden spoon and garlic press give way to fresh renderings of the authentic experiences of Italian American women in all their fascinating diversity. Food serves as a bridge to ethnic heritage -- to earlier generations, the old country, the immigrant experience, and the deprivation and solidarity of the working class. It also becomes a medium for revealing the painful legacies of prejudice and family violence and for exploring how women's unsatisfied hungers can be subverted into appetites for sex or drugs. Food also provides a means for reclaiming the joy of cooking and reinventing old rituals to suit new realities. These are the voices of Italian American women at the beginning of the twenty-first century, refusing to be overlooked, silenced, or stereotyped. Theirs is a literature that is multifaceted and nourishing, while challenging all received notions of what it means to be an Italian American. Book jacket.