Status Updates From Oh, Beautiful: An American ...

Mom and Dad disagree on how to handle Geri, their schizophrenic daughter. Dad thinks she can handle it on her own; Mom wants her to have help. Meanwhile Mom is getting more independent, on longer catering to Dad on every issue.

Father Ferraro, the family priest, leaves the priesthood. He gets married, but still considers himself a priest.

Most of the second half of the book is about Joe Godges, the marine who fought in WWII. When he and his wife divorce, Joe won't agree to have the marriage annulled. He would have had to demean her character.

John is a journalist, writing articles for the religious press. He's also gay and is having internal battles with himself.

Turns out John Paul Godges is gay, although it seems he hasn't had relations with a man as of yet. A.I.D.S. has come to America and there are long discussions of what that means.

Mary Jo may be gay. She's a disk jockey on the college radio station and has discovered "the blues".

Godges focuses on Genie, one of Joe's other daughters, who was interested in English literature, especially poetry.

Geri turned 40 in 1995. She's bouncing in and out of treatment.

Nothing is helping Geri until her sister hits upon Geri's love for music.

Geri, one of the kids, contracts schizophrenia.

Kennedy is assassinated. Kids attend parochial school. Dad is laid off.

Joe Godges notices Ida Di Gregorio at the supermarket struggling with her bags of groceries and offers to carry them for her; this leads to several dates and their eventual marriage.

Joe Godzisz, who would eventually marry Ida Di Gregorio, fought in WWII at the battles of Guam and Guadalcanal, where thousands of American soldiers were killed, was a marine, one of the first groups to land at Guam. One of his jobs was to climb trees and establish telephone communications between the troops and the officers in charge. Lots of times he was a sitting duck. He relied a lot on his religious faith.

Joe Godzisz who will eventually marry Ida Di Gregorio of the Mason City family, joins the marines during WWII.

WWII begins. Ida follows her sister Mafalda, to California. Lehigh Row in Mason City had its own form of intolerance, a pecking order for one thing.

The family buys a house, plus ten acres, which is more land than all of the other renters have in their part of Mason City. They are not happy, and the Di Gregorios are ostrasized to a degree.

These people remind me of my own family. My mother used to do a lot of canning. She'd chop up a load of beef and store it in the basement. That stuff was gourmet.

Italian immigrant Nicola Di Gregorio moves his family to Mason City, Iowa.

Very good start.

Very good start.