Mixed Messages: Reflections on an Italian Jewish Family and Exile

Description

In post–World War II America, who had ever heard of an Italian Jew? Journalist and author Eleanor Foa—born in Italy, raised in the U.S., daughter of a brilliant father whose Italian-Jewish roots trace back to 16th-century printers—was proud of her exotic heritage, yet knew little about her lineage.

In 2006, accompanied by her American-born sister, she retraced the footsteps of their ancestors through northern Italy—Soragna, Cortemaggiore, Sabbioneta, Parma—and reconnected with relatives in Turin, Naples, and Rome. The result is both a physical and psychological journey, where the past sheds light on the present. Her close relationship with her Italian-born father, and her sister’s bond with their German-born mother, reveal complex family dynamics and the lingering power of what was spoken—and what was not.

Mixed Messages is a universal story of exile, family, and generational conflict, as well as the specific history of a remarkable family whose successes and tragedies reflect the flowering, dispersal, and partial resurrection of Italian Jewish life from the 15th century through the post-Fascist era.

Part road trip, part family memoir, Mixed Messages is a layered, beautifully written story filled with discoveries. It explores the power of place, the resonance of memory, and the entanglements of identity. It will especially resonate with readers of Lucette Lagnado’s The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit and André Aciman’s Out of Egypt.

About the Author

Eleanor Foa is an author, journalist, photojournalist, and corporate writer. Her articles, essays, and reviews have appeared in The New York Times, Harper’s, Ms., The New Republic, Woman Around Town, and Women’s Voices for Change. She is the author of Whither Thou Goest: The Story of an Uprooted Wife (E.P. Dutton, 1976), a feminist memoir and business story, and In Good Company (Warner Books, 1994), a history of the H.J. Heinz Company. She is president of Eleanor Foa Associates, a past president of the American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA), and has held literary residencies at Yaddo and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.