Helpful Score: 5
For anyone who is Italian-American or loves ethnic-flavored reads, this book is a gem! The story of ChiChi and her mother, grandmother and younger brother is followed as 2 year old ChiChi and family migrates to America in the 1940's and continues through the 1960's. Good observations about the hard knocks and misery that immigrants experienced arriving in an unknown country. I enjoyed the quirky, tough character of ChiChi and her relationship with her brother was endearing. Marie Giordano has a clean, stark style of narration and I enjoyed the lapses into ChiChi's inner thoughts throughout. Being Italian myself, many of the expressions, emotions, language and gestures were amusing and familiar to me. I am much looking forward for book #2 in the trilogy to come out.
Helpful Score: 4
What a find. Quirky immigrant story, very unique yarn. Well narrated, Italian-American, experience (post WWII). Written in an opinionated child's voice, charming and relatable. I lost this book about midway through, since it is a small paperback that fit in my purse. I never forgot about it. I moved and realized it was not among my things. Finally nabbed a copy thru Amazon and loved being able to finish it. Great brother sister story, great coming of age tale, easy to read for any age. Review on jacket says this book will resonate with anyone who has ever left home in search of different life. I agree especially since I paid for it twice.
Helpful Score: 2
Going in, I thought this was going to be a book about The Italian Immigrant Experience in America. In many ways it was, but mostly it's a book about growing up, understanding your family, and figuring out who you are.
The relationships in this book are complex and difficult. I found myself taking turns loving and wanting to smack each character. The heartbreaks are real, and yet you find yourself hoping for the best because the characters keep pushing on and working for more.
ChiChi is a great character and it's amazing to watch her grow from a two year old to being 18 and ready to leave home. Throughout this journey, she leaves Italy and has to learn what it means to be an American. Plus there's the hell of being a teenager and finding out that moms have secrets.
The relationship between ChiChi and her brother is beautiful and when the book ended, I wished there was one of those sections that tells you what happens to everyone in future.
The relationships in this book are complex and difficult. I found myself taking turns loving and wanting to smack each character. The heartbreaks are real, and yet you find yourself hoping for the best because the characters keep pushing on and working for more.
ChiChi is a great character and it's amazing to watch her grow from a two year old to being 18 and ready to leave home. Throughout this journey, she leaves Italy and has to learn what it means to be an American. Plus there's the hell of being a teenager and finding out that moms have secrets.
The relationship between ChiChi and her brother is beautiful and when the book ended, I wished there was one of those sections that tells you what happens to everyone in future.
Helpful Score: 1
A very engaging story of a brother & sister who immigrated to America with their young Italian mother and grandmother. ChiChi, the oldest child, tells the story which is at times both humorous and sad. A definite must read.
Helpful Score: 1
"I Love You Like a Tomato" by Marie Giordano is a poignant, moving and often humorous coming of age story about a young girl whose family, a younger asthmatic brother, depressed mother and loving and strong grandmother, emigrated to Minneapolis from southern Italy just after the end of WW II. The siblings, best friends, must and do learn together not only the English language but also how to make their way in this strange and confusing new land where many troubles abound yet opportunities are there as well.
What resonated even more for me is that even today, children who come to America face exactly the same challenges and, absent adults who are culturally and linguistically savvy to guide them, these youngsters must navigate life in the same ways the characters in this book did.
This heartwarming book was a joy to read. I could not stop turning the pages.
What resonated even more for me is that even today, children who come to America face exactly the same challenges and, absent adults who are culturally and linguistically savvy to guide them, these youngsters must navigate life in the same ways the characters in this book did.
This heartwarming book was a joy to read. I could not stop turning the pages.
Helpful Score: 1
This is a heart-warming story about a little girl, Conchetta, who comes to America from post-WWII Italy with her grandmother, mother, and little brother. It's Isabelle Allende meets Fanny Flagg -- a really enjoyable book!
Helpful Score: 1
Book Description: ... ChiChi Maggiordino will do anything to get God's attention. She will hold her breath, stand on tiptoe for an hour, walk a mile backward, climb all stairs on her knees... anything. When her grandmother teaches her how to use the Evil Eye, telling her it's how Jesus Christ made his miracles and how the Italians got rid of Mussolini, ChiChi realizes it's what her prayers have been missing. Now she can get started on the business of making her mother happier by helping her find love, and healing her brother's weak lungs.
But ChiChi's family lives in Minneapolis, and it's the 1950s. For an Italian immigrant family, sometimes it seems like nothing can make life easier. ChiChi's mother still pines for her husband, a long-dead American soldier; ChiChi's brother is disdainful of her sacrifices and penance-he doesn't understand what his older sister already knows, that sometimes God needs to be bribed.
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Critics raved about this book, and Amazon readers gave it 4 out of 5 stars. I started it but just couldn't get into it. Her style of writing wasn't my cup of tea so I gave up after a few pages. Everytime I re-read the reviews, though, I wonder if I shouldn't have been more patient!
But ChiChi's family lives in Minneapolis, and it's the 1950s. For an Italian immigrant family, sometimes it seems like nothing can make life easier. ChiChi's mother still pines for her husband, a long-dead American soldier; ChiChi's brother is disdainful of her sacrifices and penance-he doesn't understand what his older sister already knows, that sometimes God needs to be bribed.
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Critics raved about this book, and Amazon readers gave it 4 out of 5 stars. I started it but just couldn't get into it. Her style of writing wasn't my cup of tea so I gave up after a few pages. Everytime I re-read the reviews, though, I wonder if I shouldn't have been more patient!
Helpful Score: 1
This book is a treasure. Giordano has very successfully captured what childhood is like in a disfunctional family, but how , when siblings stick together, and one or two grown-ups care, survival is possible. I was not raised Catholic, but ChiChi's bargains with God to keep her little brother safe is one of the most moving things I have ever read. The author sees through the eyes of this child...truly a gift!
Helpful Score: 1
Italian or not, you will love this book if you are one to enjoy ethnic reads. Hilarious, heartbreaking, a wonderful tale of love between siblings.
Helpful Score: 1
Great book,Started a little slow for me,but once I got into it it was a great read.
"I love you like a tomato" is by turns sweet and sad, poignant and hilarious....a coming of age novel that stands full and alive and well worth the read. Three cheers. This is a first novel for this author.
A coming-of-age story about an Italian family--very well written--first book in a trilogy.
An EXCELLENT book. I laughed, I cried, but I can't part with it! It's definitely a keeper. The good news is it's supposed to be the first of a trilogy. I'm still waiting....
ChiChi Maggiordino will do anything to get God's attention. She will hold her breath, stand on tiptoe for an hour, walk a mile backward, and climb all stairs on her knees...anything. Her younger brother makes fun of her, but ChiChi knows that sometimes God has to be bribed. When ChiChi's grandmother teaches her how to use the Evil Eye, Chi Chi realizes it's what her prayers have been missing--and that this old Italian magic is what is going to convince God to help her keep her family together.
But life has a way of taking control of itself--and ChiChi watches in wonder as her family transforms right before her eyes, painfully aware of all the ways she herself is changing as well.
They say that to truly love something means to let it go, but ChiChi has never given anything up without a fight.
But life has a way of taking control of itself--and ChiChi watches in wonder as her family transforms right before her eyes, painfully aware of all the ways she herself is changing as well.
They say that to truly love something means to let it go, but ChiChi has never given anything up without a fight.
Hilarious! A must read!
Highly recomend this book! It's wonderfully written and you will feel like you are right there with the main character, ChiChi Magiordano - extraordinaire!!!!
Wow! What a great read! Gigi hooks you in on the first page of this book! This is a quirky little story that will warm your heart and your soul. If you have any Italian or Catholic background you will soon identify with Gigi's childhood ways. "I Love You Like a Tomato" is an evolving to life for Gigi and her family. Read it and enjoy it!
This is a wonderful story about immigrant Italian Americans written about the period just following WWII. It was enlightening to read about the family's experiences, good and bad, told from the viewpoint of a young girl who is audacious, superstitous and perhaps a little weird. She and her brother who is asmatic suffer much at the hands of their mother and the people they meet , but I learned so much about the immigrant experience of some of those who came to America thru Ellis Island. Highly recommend it. I'm definitely passing it o to my reading circle!
This was a wonderful book; sweet, sad and hilarious all at once!
Hair raising, hilarious and poignant story of a young Italian girl transplanted to America and how she survived. Full of secrets.
Fun book. Great read.
