The Long Way Home
An American Journey from Ellis Island to the Great War
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Nunzio Donze’s Story
Thursday, July 15th, 2010
Richard Donze writes about his Sicilian-born grandfather:
I just finished reading The Long Way Home and enjoyed it very much. I am a second generation American-born grandson of an Italian-born WWI veteran (actually Sicilian, Nunzio, my paternal grandfather). Between the words and images in your book and those in the movie The Golden Door I have a better visual (and visceral) appreciation of what my grandfather endured coming over in the early 20th Century, and what he might have experienced when he went back to Europe in the war.
Sadly, my father and all his siblings have died, so the only recollections at hand are two that my 92 year-old mother recalls hearing about Nunzio’s war-time experience:
1. That he once told a buddy in the trench to keep his head down or else he’d get it blown off; the buddy didn’t listen and met that exact fate.
2. That he never fired his rifle because “They [the enemy] never did anything to me.” (When I first saw that you had a chapter titled “Why should I shoot them?” I wondered if my grandpop was articulating a common sensibility.)
Whether factual or apocryphal, these stories reinforced a recurring message in your book about the war being very immediate and personal for many of the troops, and less about ideology or grand designs.
After reading The Long Way Home I am inspired to do some research: to find out whether or not my grandfather was drafted; his unit; where he served; in which battles he fought; and whether or not he took advantage of the fast track to citizenship by virtue of his military service.
Just as the Great War made your Meyer and Sam and Tony and Epifanio and my Nunzio Americans, your book has made me and my family more connected to American history. Actually, (to paraphrase Ziggy Marley), it’s now American MY-story, not American HIS-tory.
Thank you for writing this book.
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