SOURCE: Fachinger, Petra. Review of Christ in Concrete, by Pietro di Donato. Canadian Literature, no. 145 (summer 1995): 150-52.

In the following assessment, Fachinger contrasts the themes, style, and narrative techniques of Christ in Concrete with those of Caterina Edwards' The Lion's Mouth.

Although both Christ in Concrete and The Lion's Mouth describe the experience of Italian immigration to the New World and draw on autobiographical material, they could not be more different in subject matter, style and narrative technique. Published in the same year as John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, Christ in Concrete was hailed by the critics of its time but did not receive much further attention until it was rediscovered with the surge of interest in “ethnic” literature.

Christ in Concrete tells the story of an Italian immigrant bricklayer and his family in the New York of the 1920s. Geremio dies on Good Friday when the...