SOURCE: Mulas, Franco. “The Ethnic Language of Pietro Di Donato's Christ in Concrete.” In From the Margin: Writings in Italian Americana, edited by Anthony Julian Tamburri, Paolo A. Giordano, and Fred L. Gardaphé, pp. 307-15. West Lafayette, Ind.: Purdue University Press, 1991.

In the following essay, Mulas evaluates both the linguistic achievements and limitations of di Donato's prose style in Christ in Concrete, highlighting the use of Italian expressions in American literature.

Pietro Di Donato's Christ in Concrete (1939) stands as one of the best and most powerful accounts of the Italian immigrant experience in the New World. It is the story of a full-blooded Italian bricklayer, Geremio, whose love for his homeland is reflected in his love for his devoted wife, Annunziata, their seven children, and the eighth about to be born. Geremio is an honest, hardworking man whose enduring loyalty not so much to the nation but to...