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"But this language of yours,” said one of the instructors, himself an obvious Britisher, “where does it come from?” …
“From the mouth of Polish mothers,” I replied.
-- William Carlos Williams, The Autobiography, p. 311
John Zebrowski
Among the more structured, more serious immigrant novels, John Zebrowski's little set of sketches, Uncle Bruno, stands quite jauntily on its own merits. Here is Polish pride, Polish honor, Polish family-cohesiveness, and a capsule of Polish life in America. More than that, there is Unlce Bruno himself, an outsized exemplar of these virtues and of several vices as well. He is anti-clerical, anti-doctor, and mildly anti-work. He loves and obeys his wife, tells a good tale to his drinking partners, and responds grandly to the admiration of his brother's son, Johnny. His anger, a constant threat to his relatives, is a source of great fun for the readers of Uncle Bruno. Zebrowski wrote this originally as a possible radio script, and the dialogue, in spite of some Polish phrases, sounds well today, although the settings are small towns in Pennsylvania and New Jersey in the twenties. Polish-American writers being in such short supply, it is most pleasant to behavior able to have Uncle Bruno with us.
Performance
Publications
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Janus Pub, 1972
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Janus Pub, 1972
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Janus Pub, 1972