What a family it is!

I USED TO BE ITALIAN is the coming-of-age story of Jamie LaBianco, a poor boy growing up in an Italian ghetto in Depression-era Cleveland. An admiring teacher tells him he has everything it takes for success: talent, brains, motivation, and a loving family. And what a family it is!

Papa makes moonshine up in the attic with the help of Jamie’s brother Rico, Mamma, and Vinnie Grosso, who is one year older than Jamie and an unofficial member of the family. The night before an anticipated raid by the feds, while Papa lies in the downstairs bedroom feverish with double pneumonia, everyone works to remove all evidence of the still, in a hilarious account of family solidarity.

Vinnie has dismantled the still while little Jamie hauls 25-pound sacks of Jack Frost sugar to the flivver. Rico places a sack on the driver’s seat so his feet can reach the pedals.

“Mamma, wearing her blue chenille bathrobe and slippers, went upstairs and nervously checked the attic one more time. She got down on her hands and knees and ran a butter knife down the cracks between the floor boards to make sure no mash residue was left behind as evidence. At one point she even burned an old sock and fanned the smoke to mask any lingering smell of whiskey.”

John Lonero tells story after story, and the reader feels like an invited guest at a family dinner. Uncle Nick orates his Thanksgiving-Christmas sermon at the table at every opportunity. “Amicizie sono fabbricate dal fuocco.” For dramatic effect he repeats the proverb again. “Friendships...are forged in fire. You don’t know...if you have a friend...until the friendship has been tested by fire.” This becomes the underlying motif.

At the outset Mr. Lonero acknowledges that his novel is creative non-fiction. As he quotes his sister Ann in a note to the reader, “Most of this stuff actually happened. I know because I was there,” though the author indicates he “embellished here and there.” The reader is convinced by the authentic sense of place and time.

The guys on the corner of Clark and Fulton, “the hangout corner,” become Jamie’s role models, and he and Vinnie join the older boys there every evening. It is there that Jamie sees Frankie the Foot (Frank DaFutte) run a con on the local policemen.

And it is on the corner where Jamie collects the confiscated spoils Vinnie steals from the back seat of a police car while the policemen are distracted. Thus begins his collection of TILLIE THE TOILER and POPEYE books (“Do ladies really do that stuff?” Jamie asks) as well as an assortment of foil-wrapped condoms that the 7-year-old hides in a box in the coal cellar wrapped in a piece of oilcloth.

“When Mrs. Pulaski complained to the school authorities that her son, Paul, had been beat-up in the boys room by him, Cookie retaliated by climbing up on the pitched roof of her house and throwing her cat down the chimney.”

Jamie and Vinnie disobey school warnings and on a snowy day during Christmas vacation, climb the three-story fire escape. Suddenly Cookie Occaro appears. He intimidates the younger boys as he warns, “‘This is my fire’scape. You gotta ax me for permission. You hear me! He kicks Vinnie repeatedly in the ribs and says, ‘You hear me?’” Vinnie lies beaten and bleeding in the snow. Jamie, terrified that he will be beaten and killed by the older boy, comes up with a con that ensnares Cookie. By virtue of his quick wit and brains, he turns the brutal scene around. Cookie, bloodied and stunned, decides to leave and thanks Jamie for punching him repeatedly and bloodying his face.

Vinnie is in awe of his friend’s courage and creative intelligence and is humiliated by his own defeat. The scene, though upsetting, is pivotal in illuminating the long-lasting bond of friendship between Jamie and Vinnie.

We move on to Jamie’s first day at West Technical High School, where he is accepted into the art program. Vinnie, now a horny teenager with a Charles Atlas build, a year ahead of Jamie and a star on the football team, congratulates Jamie on his good luck to be in the arts program.

He says to Jamie on his first day of high school, “Wait ‘till you see the babes an’ boobs in that art room! Holy shit. I think I’m gonna drop foundry an’ switch to art.”

With all his body-building, swagger, and machismo, Vinnie never gets the girl, while Jamie, the shy, straight-A student, finds Jenny. Their sweet courtship will surely remind readers of their own awkward teen years coming to know the opposite sex.

Jamie’s solution to his own sexual embarrassment, which involves digging out his stash in the coal cellar, leads to the potential of an even bigger embarrassment. The scene is hilarious and is described with humor, restraint, and tenderness. We fast-forward to the Cleveland School of Art, where Jamie received a scholarship. It is during these college years that he is alienated from his family. His showdown with Mamma is heartbreaking though inevitable.

Enterprising and hardworking, while still in college he succeeds in starting a business. Vinnie reappears in Jamie’s life, pulling up in a Jaguar convertible. He convinces his friend to rent him the warehouse on Jamie’s business property. Jamie does not realize that he’s been conned until the police raid the place.

The consequent legal battles bring Mike DaFutte (Frankie the Foot’s brother), who is now a lawyer, into the picture. Can Jamie forgive Vinnie for involving him in his illicit dealings and using him as a pigeon? With Mike DaFutte’s footwork and legalese, Jamie winds up with a lucrative post office contract and all is eventually forgiven.

The last third of the book describes the friendship, triumphs, and disasters (Vinnie gets deported twice) of Jamie, Vinnie, and Mike. The anecdotes continue at a machine-gun rate. The reader gets to know the three boys from Clark and Fulton as grown men. One ponders Vinnie’s indiscretions and Mike’s legal maneuverings. But Mr. Lonero makes these characters lovable, because he loves them.

The reader cannot help but enjoy this humorous view of their lives in the fast lane. The friendships that began in the neighborhood were ultimately forged in fire. Jamie, Vinnie and Mike and their families live happily ever after.