Pastina - My Father's Misfortune, My Mother's Good Soup - Paperback

The memoir charts the young life of a boy who grows up in a peasant family in Long Island City Queens, New York and traces his development until he reaches age fourteen. A father's abusive drinking, womanizing, and disrespect for family values and safety is assuaged by his mother's cooking and nurturing hand.

The book's inciting incident revolves around the father's giving up the family apartment to a local bookie to satisfy a gambling debt. And soon after, the father must escape to California, while leaving the family behind to deal with the bookies harassments and threats.

Eventually the family escapes to join the father in California, but the father's habits force the mother to cut him out of their lives for good,