Feast or Famine — Augustus Cileone

EAT, DRINK, AND BE MERRY? It?s more like eat, drink, and be miserable. Feast or Famine is a novel which depicts what happens when the tension between the Catholic Church?s restrictions on self-indulgence and the Italian desire for food, gambling, physical passion, and expensive (although tacky) material things encounters the social upheaval of the late 1960's and early 1970's. The main character, Mike Accordo, an English teacher, had not spoken for a long time after becoming catatonic following a traumatic event involving some students. As part of his recovery, he is in Florence, Italy, in the summer of 1987 with his mentor/surrogate mother/unofficial therapist, Ambrosia D'Italia. He is dictating his memoir so that he can hear his own voice again and be able to converse with his friend at the same time. The book focuses on South Philadelphians from the 1960's to the 1980's, and includes stories about gangsters, murder, drugs, and rock and roll.