Opening essay list­ed as a Notable Essay in Best American Essays 2019

“In this thought­ful col­lec­tion of essays, Maria Terrone lyri­cal­ly reflects upon the vicis­si­tudes of mem­o­ry, the quick­sand of iden­ti­ty, and the trap­pings of time. Terrone finds firm foot­ing in the New World, but nev­er steps far from the Old, the Sicilian land­scape her fam­i­ly left behind. As Terrone joy­ful­ly claims her name and place in the world, the read­er embarks on this jour­ney with her, for­ti­fied by her hard-earned wis­dom, and sub­se­quent­ly feel­ing a lit­tle less alone.”
— Maria Laurino, author of The Italian Americans: A History and Were You Always an Italian?

“I love this col­lec­tion of essays by Maria Terrone, an excep­tion­al­ly tal­ent­ed woman who grew up in Jackson Heights, Queens, with mater­nal roots firm­ly estab­lished, as she shows us, in Sicily’s long his­to­ry. Subtly craft­ed, wit­ty, hon­est, it brings to life a New York one instant­ly rec­og­nizes: an inter­na­tion­al city, rang­ing from the fac­to­ries of Long Island City to a Fifth Avenue beau­ty com­pa­ny to shoot­ing ranges to Catholic schools. A world where a woman might lose her­self in prepar­ing foods from many coun­tries to dream­ing of fash­ion­able clothes and out-of-this world watch­es and shoes, while tak­ing those graf­fi­ti-soaked sub­ways to sum­mer jobs in New York’s cubi­cles and win­dow­less offices. All of it mem­o­rably real­ized here on page after page in a lan­guage which only real­ly fine poets can evoke, real­iz­ing for us, her lucky read­ers, a world shared in truth by so many of us.”
— Paul Mariani, author of The Whole Harmonium: The Life of Wallace Stevens

“Maria Terrone points her writ­ing direct­ly at the dif­fi­cult and pow­er­ful mate­r­i­al of the edges of ordi­nary life: a small hos­pi­tal­ized child being threat­ened by a nurse, hor­ror sto­ries from Vietnam, sto­ries of a POW in a Japanese camp. But much more than that. Why does a beloved broth­er have a love affair with guns and shoot­ing? What does it mean to explore our own fears unflinch­ing­ly? Her writ­ing pen­e­trates the under­world from the sub­way to the uncon­scious, from fam­i­ly to beyond, some­times employ­ing wry humor to exam­ine her per­son­al obses­sions and her place in the “new world” of 21st cen­tu­ry America. You will sink into these essays and be rapt with atten­tion. A fine book.”
— Joanna Clapps Herman, author of The Anarchist Bastard

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