Joe Montaperto

The Edge of Whiteness Joe Montaperto

Part A Bronx Tale, part a bizarre The Razors Edge, and part the 70's movie, Coolie High, THE EDGE OF WHITENESS, a memoir, is a quirky coming of age story, but also also a humorous, edgy social commentary on one community's reaction to the relentless march of change that defined a unique time period - the funky early 1970's. It is 1969 and Brooklyn is smoldering in the aftermath of the recent volatile race riots. The family of young Joey Montaperto flees their beloved Italian neighborhood for a New Jersey suburb so painfully white that it makes the TV show My Three Sons seem exotic. Ironically, when the high school there is then later forcefully integrated, the sensitive Joey is confronted with an even more brutal racial confict. Unexpectedly rescued from a hallway ambush by a murderous yet artistic loner, though, he is subsequently introduced to a fascinating new world of hip black culture. Finding his soul and "soul" in the writings of Malcolm X, a doomed first love affair with a sizzling but heroin plagued Puerto Rican hairdresser, and ultimately, a spiritual foray into the study of Islam - it all serves to cause a major conflict within his Catholic family and the Mafia restaurant where he is employed as a diswasher.