Goodbye, Rudy Kazoody

Who is the mysterious Rudy Kazoody, and what, if anything, did he have to do with the events that occurred to a group of teenagers during one fateful summer in New York City’s Bronx neighborhood in the early 1960s? Growing up is difficult enough. But when you’re a recent immigrant arriving in a country that is going through its own coming-of-age process, fueled by rock ‘n’ roll, the Civil Rights movement, the Vietnam War, free love, the pill, LSD, and the Cold War, it’s downright confusing, and for some—lethal. With the various upheavals shaking America to its core, Joey, whose family emigrated to the Bronx from Italy’s Apennine Mountains, struggles to retain his innocent, optimistic outlook on life as he and the other young teenagers on Arthur Avenue—virtually all of whom also come from immigrant, working-class families—try to find their place in this new order. From the euphoria of first love to the despair of dashed dreams and betrayal, Joey emerges from the summer sadder but wiser in this romantic, mysterious, and nostalgic tale. Behind it all lurks the mysterious Rudy Kazoody, an enigma that Joey feels he must solve or else remain forever just outside the inner circle of life and love.