The Grand Junction

Tommy Caruso is a young man in Naples in the 1950s. His father, Thomas, who has been absent for years, sends his mother a corkscrew from America, prompting Tommy’s mother to send him to hunt Thomas down and kill him with the device. Tommy’s quest begins in New York City and then takes him to Colorado, where the last message from his father was sent. Along the way, he meets a woman, Laurie, who is desperate to get out of her small farm life and have adventures. Upon arriving in Colorado, they discover that Thomas is embroiled in dealings that the FBI is curious about, and he’s managed to have not one but two secret families in the United States. Tommy and Laurie find an unlikely ally in Tom Junior, Thomas’s American son, and the three of them continue the quest. It sends them to a uranium mine, a Navajo reservation, and finally the truth. This fun, fast-paced tale tracks a contemporary immigrant story across a familiar American postwar landscape. Costanzo’s knowledge of Italian culture and Italian-American immigrant experiences immediately lends an air of authenticity and charm, and makes the reader quick to accept the improbable direction the story takes when the smuggling and government conspiracies are introduced. [em](BookLife) [/em]