Donald Greco | Author of Abramo’s Gift, Youngstown, Ohio

March 28, 2009

Dr. Kent: Welcome back to Sound Authors! My next guest on the show is the author of a book called Abramo’s Gift. His name is Donald Greco and welcome to the show!

Donald Greco: Thank you; I’m glad to be here.

Dr. Kent: Tell me a little about this book. Its 1918 and you’re in Youngstown, Ohio. Tell us about the setting of this book.

Donald Greco: All right. Well, an Italian immigrant, the young man, and all the turmoil that was going on at that time; he lost his wife and child in one of the skirmishes that happened over there. So he came to Youngstown Ohio where his uncle lived and his uncle got him a job in one of the steel mills. The whole story is about his adapting to American life and to work life and a city that was at the time against the Italians.

Dr. Kent: What inspired you to turn this into a novel? It’s done quite well.

Donald Greco: Well thank you. My mother was Irish and my father was Italian and that was a big ethnic rivalry in the early part of the 20th century because the Irish had gotten here many years before the Italians and when the Italians came in, many of the mills used to make the Italians underbid the Irish people who were working in the mills. So if an Irishman was working in a mill for $3.00 a day lets say, they’d tell an Italian he could have the job if he could work for $2.00 a day. Then they would fire the Irish guy and hire the Italian guy.

Needless to say, that caused a great deal of animosity and hostility because all those people were trying to feed their families and just make a go of it in this country. My mom and dad when they got married in 1940 it was quite a scandal that an Irishman was marrying an Italian. In fact, my mother, one of her uncles told my mother that she would forever be the black sheep of the family for marrying an Italian. Of course, they’re both gone now, they both died within the last five years. They lived a very happy married life for all that time.

Dr. Kent: Things have changed a whole lot since then. We’re going through a similar economic crisis that we saw in the late 20s and early 30s but times have really changed since then. Paint that picture of the way the world was for these characters you created.

Donald Greco: Okay; when they were living at that time around 1920, first of all there were no social agencies for these people. If you didn’t work, you didn’t eat and you could starve. Things were desperate and also people didn’t live as long in those days as they do today and so it was a tough life that they had because they worked hard in the mills. The mills were dangerous, dirty places but yet, having said all that, today when an Irishman would marry an Italian, if they’re you know how they put brides pictures in the papers; no one cares, it probably doesn’t raise anybody’s interest that an Irishman and Italian are getting married. Same thing would go for say a Lebanese and a German or a Slovak and a Jew. Its one of the great success stories of the 20th century that starting with the very difficult lives that all those people, all those European immigrants had in this country, they found a way to live together and not only did they live together but they intermarried, raise families together and really put a wonderful imprint on this country.

Dr. Kent: You’re background is very interesting. You have a PhD and you were a mathematics professor for many years. What brought you around to Abramo’s Gift?

Donald Greco: Well, all my life I was interested in good stories and when I was a little boy my father and I, the one thing we used to do together more than anything else. My dad used to go up to the local social club on Saturday and they’d play cards and so on and then he’d come home, he’d make it home around 3:00 every Saturday and he and I would drive up to a local library branch that we had. We’d go in there and he’d get his books from the adult side and I’d get my books from the child side and we would talk about the kinds of stories. He would ask me as I was reading the books did I like the story? What kind of story was it?

He was always interested in good stories. He himself loved a great story and he read most of the great classic novels that have been written and I kind of grew up with that. I’ve always liked to write but I have to learn a living and was pretty good at math so I started at a math teacher many years ago and I stayed with it. I earned my living as a mathematics professor but the great love of my life was writing. So I would do that on the side very quietly without anybody knowing it and I produced this novel here is the fourth one that I have written. I’m working on another one now but the other three have not been published. This is the first one to be published.

Dr. Kent: What do you hope people can take away from this book? It’s about some deep culture that we don’t really have around anymore. People like to escape from the world when they read a novel.

Donald Greco: I would like the think when they read my story anyhow; they realize that there are some important things in life besides possessions and besides wealth and so on. I think the most important thing is the existence of a family and the love that exists within that family and how that love sustains everybody that it touches. I think that’s the story that I would like people to remember; that even in difficult times, under difficult circumstances, if people really were part of a loving family it would help get them through. Also that there were people in the story are very what you would call great people but they are very ordinary people. You could be great and yet be ordinary.

Dr. Kent: Wow; well we’ve been speaking with Donald Greco the author of Abramo’s Gift. It’s a beautiful novel from the cover on through. It brings you into another world and I really appreciate you chatting with me today and we can find out more on the web I’m sure. Where can we go to see more?

Donald Greco: I’m in the process right now of developing a website. I naively thought all I had to do is write a book and a good story and everything would take care of itself but I have been interviewed by gracious people like yourself and I realize now that I need a website. So I talked to some young genius and he’s going to put one together for me. Right now I don’t have one. The book is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble but as far as a website, I don’t have it yet.

Dr. Kent: We’ll check you out on Amazon; Abramo’s Gift. Thank you so much for chatting with us about this great novel.

Donald Greco: You’re welcome, thanks Kent.

Dr. Kent: My next guest is going to be Alphie McCourt. He is the author of A Long Stones Throw. He’s the younger brother of the famous McCourt Brothers Frank and Maliki. This is a beautiful memoir to add to his family’s legacy. So we’re going to talk to him in just a minute. Come on back for that.

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