Download Twisted Head: An Italian American Memoir AudioBook Free
What's in a name? For Carl Capotorto, everything is at a name. The literal translation from Italian to British of Capotorto is "twisted head." That is no automobile accident. Carl grew up in the Bronx in the 1960s and ’70s with the Mangialardis ("eat fat") and Mrs. Sabella ("so beautiful"), incessant fryers and a dolled-up glamour queen. Carl's father, Philip Vito Capotorto, was the obsessive, tyrannical head of the family--"I'm not your good friend, I'm the daddy" was a common refrain in their household. The daddy ran Cappi's Pizza and Sangwheech Shoppe, whose motto was "We Don't Spel Good, Just Make Nice." It had been a period of great upheaval in the Bronx, and Carl's father was right in the middle of it, if not the reason for it, much to the chagrin of his long-suffering mom.
Twisted Head is the comedic storyline of the hardscrabble, working-class family's life that represents the true legacy of Italian-Americans--labor, not offense. It is also the poignant memoir of the author's struggle to become himself in a global that demanded he become another person. Tragic and funny in similar measure, Carl's storyline is propelled with a solid of only-in-New-York characters: customers at the family pizza shop, public school teachers, nuns and priests at church, shop owners and merchants--all wildly enjoyable and sometimes frightening. Somewhere in every the trend and madness that encircled Carl in his young ones, he found the bottom brand: he cherished his family, but he had to let them go. Twisted Head can be an exorcism of types. With plenty of laughs.
