Gemini Joe: Memoirs of Brooklyn

"Crying isn't bad because it is God's way of washing away the pain. That's why we have teardrops." - Gemini Joe

The runt of the litter, Gemini Joe is no stranger to tears. His life is a story--following the Great Depression and his parents struggle to provide for his family. Survival in his powerful, sometimes cruel family was not easy. Although he remembers with affection and occasional humor the holidays, his childhood friends, his mother and grandmother, his tough, bullying brothers and indifferent sister, his family was too much for him. He found acceptance in a bottle of scotch. Health issues beginning at birth and compounded by an addiction to cigarettes from the age of seven. At the end, he managed to conquer his addictions, but was it too late?
Gemini Joe's childhood memories inspire sorrow, anger, sympathy, horror, and amusement. As an adult, he inspires forgiveness for the mistakes he made in life and redeemed himself through his considerable talents as an artist, poet, and thinker.

Born in the time of the Great Depression of the 1920s and 1930s, Joe takes us through his childhood, where he, being the youngest child, always seems to be overshadowed by his older siblings and family. He describes their games, the Italian culture in their home and society in the area of New York where they lived, the siblings and their relationships with each other, his own jobs, marriage, and children, his wonderful handyman skills and craft, his alcohol addiction, his health issues, estrangement from his children, and living in a mobile home with a dog towards the end of his life, while at peace with his world for the most part.

Gisela Dixon from Readers Favorite says, "I loved reading Gemini Joe: Memoirs of Brooklyn and it had my attention right from the beginning to the end. It is a simple story of an ordinary life, but that is precisely what makes it special. I enjoyed reading about all of the day-to-day life in their household with the big Italian dinners, fishing, sports, daily life, their connection with what is known as "the Mafia," and so much more. Janet is able to write as a silent observer and this to her credit because the narrative genuinely feels like Joe talking to the reader and, at times, to his daughter. It's a very engaging and well-written book and probably one of my favorite memoirs I have read in a long time!"