Not For Nothing

Not For Nothing by Kathy Curto

Take a close look at the family photo
on the cover of this memoir, and you'll
clearly see the people who shaped
Kathy Curto's life.

She's the timid, little girl posing with
her stern father in his dapper new suit,
while her adoring mother smiles faintly,
not a hair out of place in her perfectly
coiffed beehive. A loving family
with a volatile past.

This captivating collection of anecdotes
details the author's life growing up with
her three siblings in a robust Italian family
in South Jersey during  the tumultuous 1970s
and 1980s. It's a story filled with her memories
as a child, and her awakening years as a teenager.

Her father was a proud man, loud and boisterous,
who owned a small chain of gas stations. Every
night he'd come home reeking of oil, with dirt
under his fingernails, ready for a home-cooked meal
and a fight if anyone dared to antagonize him.
Even with success, he never felt quite good
enough, often asking his children
"who do you think you are?" when they
dared to question his authority.

Her mother was caring, long-suffering,
capable, and loyal. When she could no longer
tolerate her husband's roving eye or angry temper
tantrums, she would leave for awhile, only
to return to try again. She loved her children
with a fierceness that sustained her through
the good and the bad times, and the ups and downs
of life with a husband who was not always easy to love.

In those days, her brother was a carefree young man,
until drugs took him deeper and deeper into
an abyss from which he couldn't escape. Kathy
watched the futile attempts to save him fail
over and over again.

This short book is both humorous ( her father's
glued on hairpiece will make you laugh out loud)
and achingly emotional. It will appeal to all
those readers who can relate to growing up
up in a large, ethnic family where food, fights,
and laughter are all part of daily life.

Honest, poignant, and thoroughly entertaining.