Don't Sing at the Table

Adriana Trigiani draws from personal history in this endearing memoir, which describes her life with her two beloved grandmothers, Spada Bonicelli (Lucy) and Yolanda Perin Trigiani (Viola), and recounts what made them such remarkable twentieth-century women. Trigiani has a straightforward storytelling style that befits the two women as she tells how they managed motherhood and careers and kept tidy homes, always placing family first. Anecdotes reveal how her grandmothers taught Trigiani invaluable life lessons demonstrating strength in the face of adversity while simultaneously providing comfort to the family. The resiliency, humor, and warmth embodied in these women and passed down over generations allows the listener to understand how their warmth and strong values made Trigiani the writer she is today. B.J.P. 2012 Audies Finalist © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine

September 13, 2010
Fans of novelist Trigiani will be delighted with this guided tour through the author's family history via her grandmothers, Lucia and Viola. She lovingly details the women's lives and recounts the lessons she's learned while offering a fascinating look at U.S. history from the perspective of her Italian-American forebears. Both Lucia and Viola worked hard from an early age, cooking and cleaning among any number of chores, and parlayed their work ethic and expertise into strong careers. Viola started out as a machine operator and, later, co-owned a mill with her husband, while Lucia worked in a factory and then became a seamstress and storefront couturier. Her grandmothers also took pride in passing along wisdom to others; throughout her life, Trigiani benefited from their guidance regarding everything from marriage to money, creativity to religion. She credits them with telling good stories: "I mimicked their work ethic imagining myself in a factory, layering words like tasks until the work was done. I took away more than life lessons from their stories; I made a career out of it." Here, Trigiani combines family and American history, reflections on lives well-lived, and sound advice to excellent effect, as a legacy to her daughter and a remembrance of two inimitable women.