3 out of 4 stars
Share This Review
It's All Good: Times and Events I'd Never Want to Change is a delightful collection of author Charles Sacchetti's personal reflections on his life. Sacchetti's tight-knit, Italian-American family lived in a modest row house in southwest Philadelphia in the 1950's and '60's. As a hardworking family man descended from hardworking family men, the author's overarching point is that family is precious. Each story and life lesson imparted in these pages cannot be fully understood outside of the context of a loving, supportive family dynamic. It's clear that Sacchetti thoroughly appreciated his parents, even his mother's efforts to "stretch" a dollar and his father's discipline.
Although there are exceptions, each chapter is a story from Sacchetti's life, up to and including the passing of his beloved mother. There is a relevant personal photo on the title page of each chapter, which I found nicely augmented the reading experience. The author's tone is very conversational, as if he is relating these anecdotes to a friend. Indeed, his writing style implies that he considers his readers family and, by the end, I felt that Charles and I were on a first-name basis. The stories run the gamut from poignant to astonishing to humorous. It's clear that the author's experience as an athlete, a man of faith, a member of the National Guard, a husband, a businessman, and a father have afforded him plenty of wonderful content for his book. There isn't a single chapter in this memoir that I did not enjoy, but I certainly have favorites.
It was easy (and hilarious!) to imagine the elderly Mrs. Nellie Fagan, operator of the neighborhood ice cream and candy shop, wielding a broom, dismissing a newbie beat cop from her premises for "bothering [her] boys" while they were playing ball outside her store. I related heavily with Sacchetti's experience playing the position of "bench-warmer" on his first baseball team as an 8-year-old, as well as with his embarrassment when his mother intervened on his behalf and "reasoned" with the coach so her son could participate. It was heartwarming to read about the author's stint in the hospital, during which he bonded with his Jewish roommate, David, because they were both facing impending surgeries. The author's enjoyment of a documentary led to an unlikely but lasting friendship with Al Pisa, who lived over 2 hours away from Sacchetti, proving that common ground can be expansive. Love and gratitude toward God and family permeate every syllable. In fact, to sum up this book, I would borrow a description Sacchetti used for Al:
Unfortunately, I can't give It's All Good a perfect rating. There are many misplaced commas (such as after "so" at the beginning of sentences), and missing commas (such as before nonrestrictive phrases starting with "which"). There are missing hyphens, like in "seven year old" and "state of the art." Words are rendered as two-word phrases when they should not be, i.e. "on to." Ellipses are too long and are missing spaces. "Had" is missing from the phrase "Once the new hand begun." Some words are plural when they should be possessive or vice versa. Some pronouns are singular when they should be plural. There are verbs in the wrong tense ("seek" instead of "sought"). Some words are abbreviated, like "yrs." There are several issues related to quotations, such as varying between enclosing punctuation within the quotations and not doing so, failure to punctuate quotes at all, and the absence of single quotation marks around a quote within a quote. Publication titles are not italicized and TV show titles are not in quotation marks."His stories about his family experiences were told in a way that grabbed your attention and simply made you smile."
This book is such a wonderful read, it's a shame there wasn't more thorough editing. I also wish that the photographs featured were captioned in order to provide more details about the pictured people and places, if only just to satisfy my own curiosity. If I were permitted to give decimal ratings, I would happily award this book 3.5 stars. Since I can't, I will rate it 3 out of 4 stars.The errors, while technically many, did not distract from the charming nature of this touching retrospective work. If you enjoy biographies, especially those uniquely free of petty drama, or if you would enjoy listening to a jovial guy tell his life story, you must read this book! Don't worry, Sacchetti never walked uphill both ways to anywhere, although, if he had, I think he would remember it fondly. If you want my opinion of this uplifting memoir, I'd say It's All Good.
******
It's All Good: Times and Events I'd Never Want to Change
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Like SamSim's review? Post a comment saying so!
