Trying Stuff: A Collection of Recollections

Description

More than 70 years ago, Rita Mattia’s paternal great-grandfather completed The Recollections of Peter B. Mattia. It contains a brief biography plus minute details of life in 19th century Newark, New Jersey, where his parents were among the first Italian settlers. Some of his personal experiences may be wildly exaggerated, but accurate names, places, and dates make it a timeless resource for historians and scholars.

Trying Stuff is a very different sort of book. Each short chapter captures a time, a place, a person, or a moment from a life that began in mid-twentieth-century New Jersey and continues today in Virginia. Some, like stories about her mother, are tender. Others, about exceptional ancestors, read like treatments for epic cinema. In still other stories, she laughs at herself, with little or no wild exaggeration.

“Don’t expect to read my autobiography,” Mattia warns. “This is not the story of my life, but some of my favorite stories from it. Oh, and if you’re worried about what I’ve written about you…relax. It’s all good.”

Mattia has already begun a second volume, explaining, “I keep trying stuff. So, I have to keep writing.”