Pigeon Soup and Other Stories

In her small collection, Micelotta Battigelli includes eight short stories narrated for the most part by young Italian Canadian voices (either children or young adults), who tell about challenging situations, lessons learned, and painful or unpleasant circumstances they had to face in life. The protagonists gradually uncover what their daily existence brought, unexpectedly, their way. Most of the stories are set in Canada, except for “Pigeon Soup,” which titles the collection and takes place in Italy. All accounts are set in the second half of the last century.If the stories are different in terms of location, characters, and issues confronted, a thread that runs through them all is the sense of discovery brought by the meaningful events that each time forge the main characters; they all remember some significant experience that became part of who they are. In some cases, there is trauma; in other ones, some unforeseen, unexpected change. Micelotta Battigelli knows how to write: she can put the reader in the situation and make them feel the characters’ emotions. All stories are mostly geared to a young adult readership of Italian Canadian origin, who can identify with some familiar settings and traditions. However, the stories can also represent many communities, and not be just specific to the Italian Canadian. The writer tackles some delicate social and cultural issues (alcoholism, bullyism, suicide, molestation, and so on) and invites the reader to look at them from the point of view of the characters affected.The stories present a variety of themes and situations: from two Canadian students’ exciting trip to volunteer in an Italian area destroyed by an earthquake and the initial cultural clash experienced by one of them to a woman remembering a school friend who committed suicide at sixteen years of age after being bullied and socially isolated; from the terse, tense conversation between a first and second generation Italian Canadian mother and daughter over the latter's divorce to the full range of emotions caused, first, by the actions and, later, the death of a priest/teacher/coach remembered as a molester by one of his former students; from the representation of a child's nightmare, blending old folklore with new sorrow, to a young neighbour's discovery of what lies behind a churchgoers’ sense of faith and propriety; finally, life in the Italian neighbourhood of Sudbury is observed though the eyes of a young boy, who discovers that initial misunderstandings can also bring to closeness and friendship.One of the best stories in the collection is “The Hawk,” a convincing, dark account of a troubled child's intimate despair and anguish caused by her family's crisis, which is conveyed as a nightmare filled with images from an old folktale her nonna used to tell her about a huge hawk coming to threaten her old-world village at nighttime. The depth of a child's unconscious misery is seen through vivid visions of an ominous, menacing, flying presence, and suggests a profound sense of instability and fear, which is, nevertheless, addressed constructively, although painfully, in the story. In the end, there is nothing left to ambiguity, just a profound sense of responsibility, and love, toward such children who need help.Another story that deserves attention is the last one in the collection, “Black as Tar.” Set in the Italian neighbourhood of Sudbury, to which Micelotta Battigelli returns often in her stories, it is told from the point of view of a ten-year-old boy. It is to be appreciated for its sophisticated simplicity and balance. Here, as in the other stories, the writer wishes to offer a younger readership an example of unprejudiced social behaviour within a close-knit community, to educate and understand how to respect everyone.Other stories in the collection are also worth mentioning, such as “Alligator Shoes” and “Degrees of Separation”; “Francesca's Ways” is slightly different from the rest, since it can be linked to common themes in Italian Canadian literature, such as intergenerational conflict. The narrating voice is that of a second-generation daughter, lowered by the sound of a meatgrinder, that she uses with her immigrant mother, which conveys the ongoing attrition between the two women and their two different world visions; and yet, the seasonal routine allows them to come together and not give up on each other, no matter what.Micelotta Battigelli's prose flows and is very smooth, but in some instances, passages and descriptions are uneven in sensitivity, with mixed results. As an example, the only story set in Italy, “Pigeon Soup,” presents few original images of the country, although it does include more descriptive detail than the other stories. If it was meant to be an account of cultural tolerance and understanding, it could have been suggested more effectively in the narration. Also, across the collection, certain common scenes, or the inclusion of ordinary images of community or family life is understandable, justifiable, but not new; it might help some younger generations self-identify when reading about very familiar situations, but from a literary standpoint, they could be more original (as an example, the meals, the nonna, festivities and funerals, the blond northern Italian, and so forth).Overall, Rosanna Micelotta Battigelli's collection can be considered a thought-provoking compilation of short stories. It is a testament to her desire to help readers come to know social issues such as hypocrisy and violence in its many forms. Her work shows her wish to share this commitment with individuals and communities, young and old.

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