Christ in Concrete Book

This is a story of a 12-y/o Italian immigrant boy, Paul whose father, Geremio was buried alive one Good Friday when the building he was constructing collapsed and the fresh cement (thus the title) fell on him. The father has just signed a contract to pay, on installment basis, a house for his family and was excitedly telling everyone about it.

This seems to be based on Pietro Di Donato (1911-1992) actual experience as a boy whose family migrated from Italy to the US and whose father died in 1923. Donato like Paul in the story, was 12 years old and had to work as a bricklayer making his as the breadwinner in the family. This book was written in 1939 (same year The Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck came out) and was hailed as an accurate depiction of Italian immigrants experience trying to survive the harsh environment in the lower side of Manhattan during the Great Depression era.

Due to its rich religious imagery and the characters directly talking to God, reading this book is a good way to spend your Holy Week. It makes you as the question why do people suffer if there is indeed God. Why do God let His children suffer even if they truly believe in Him? For example, even job (yes, your job that gives you your salary) is referred by his people her as Job (first letter is capitalized) and I thought that Di Donato was referring to the prophet who lost his fortune and his whole family and had boils all over his body as God's way to test his faith. So, is this the way Di Donato suggests as the answer to that difficult question of why good people suffer despite having God in our midst? That He is testing us?

The plot could be predictable. The twist in the end is nothing spectacular but Paul's mother, Annunaziata's faith is something that I admire. Hers is a torch that guide her family that despite having lost her husband she was steadfast in her belief that they would survive and losing faith on God would not help. That despite all life's tests everything will turn out "fiesta." Oh, read that part, it's magic. Nicely written and it left that positivism that you experience from the first page of the book until that part. This book has a roller coaster effect on me but in the end, it will leave you hope.

A beautiful book.