TITLE OF BOOK: MISS PRETTY PLEASE
Date of Review: 31/12/2020
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1646106814
ISBN-13: 978-1646106813
About the Author:
P. E. Fischetti, born and raised in the suburbs of Washington DC, attended Walter Johnson High School and the University of Maryland, where he earned a B.A. in Criminology and an M.S. in Marriage and Family Therapy.
He currently lives in Silver Spring, MD with his wife of 34 years. They have two children in their mid-twenties living in the DC area.
Presently, Fischetti is the Creative Writer for Paul Fischetti Publishing and has his website address as www.pefischetti.com.
Previously, he spent twenty years in counseling and another twenty years running two different businesses.
He ventured into full time writing in the year 2011, publishing his first book, The Big Train’s Backyard, in 2013, followed by The Safety, in 2015.
Fischetti comes from a family who has a penchant for playing sports and athletics and is the youngest of four brothers. He is athletic, enjoys watching sports, and cheers for any DC area team.
Shobana’s Note:
I must say that the book has been a delight to review, an emotional roller coaster in a way, and one that would make P.E. Fischetti synonymous by its association.
"Miss Pretty Please," is the 3rd
of Fischetti’s novels, and ends the trilogy about the Finelli & Santucci
families in Kensington and Bethesda, Maryland.
Set in 2029 and beyond, Fischetti writes about fifteen-year-old, Annie Finelli, the daughter of football legend Guy Finelli, and twenty-six-year-old, Russell Santucci, a talented pianist, and the nephew of baseball hero of Alex Santucci. Russell is undergoing a mid-life crisis (twenty years early) and only by playing the piano, does his life seem of significance. He battles to contain his sexual desires, drug abuse, and alcohol intake.
The two main characters in the story who have a significant age gap, with Annie still a teenager, and Russell in his mid-twenties is a cause for faltering as they both work on their own talents and ambitions to achieve stardom since their families are well-known for their greatness and achievements. Russell and Annie are expected to excel in their fields of expertise by their ambitious, and successful families. It is also illegal for Russell to get involved sexually with someone younger than the legal age of eighteen.
Their attraction for each other is instantaneous on their first meeting, and they fall in love, awakened to each other’s sensuality at Annie’s fifteen birthday party when they meet for the second time.
In Miss Pretty Please, Mr. Fischetti has managed to present the characters portrayed in a clear and concise manner, making the reader envision all details and events outlined in his book with vivid clarity.
Fischetti has also cleverly managed to tell a story that has given us an insight into families of intermixed friendships dating back to the 60s and it is interesting to read of their way of life. His imaginative way of constructing the story in the futuristic year of 2029 and beyond and detailing the smart technology of the era is also to be commended. He has given the story a futuristic touch in a very authentic way.
I must say that Fischetti has a very down to earth way to storytelling and in Miss Pretty Please, he has aptly written a story that captures a reader’s rapt attention and imagination. His storytelling flows smoothly, his description of the sequences that take place is concise and he has presented the various emotions and experiences of the characters in an unpretentious way.
With two other books published leading to the trilogy of Miss Pretty Please, namely, The Big Train’s Backyard in 2013, and The Safety in 2015, I think Fischetti’s publications are worth the time and read for its originality and creativity imparted in a novel way.
I would definitely recommend Miss Pretty Please as an exceptionally written, vivid, and entertaining read.
A little of the Santucci-Finelli lineage:
The Santucci-Finelli families have intermixed due to a friendship started in the 1960s between Grandfathers (Gene and Guy I) and continued with Alex adoption at birth by Gene and Laura Santucci (Russell’s grandparents). Philip Finelli was Alex Santucci’s actual father.
Alex Santucci, Russell’s step-uncle was a Washington baseball hero who had achieved true greatness. Twice an MVP, Alex was a slugger that led Washington to a baseball title in 2012, and almost achieved the same success in 2013. His wife is Sally Keegan who stood by him when he had captivated DC for three magical years. Russell was ten years old at that time.
Alex’s half-brother Guy Finelli had reached football immortality by 2020 in DC with three straight championships when Russell was in high school.
Russell is a quarter Italian (his Grandfather Gene), a quarter Swedish (his Grandmother Laura), and half Danish (his mother Jill).
The summary:
While majoring in music at Georgetown University, Russell Santucci performed compositions from the greatest European classical composers with ease, but his heart knew he would never be the best or a star, even though he had talent.
It’s impossible, he thought, the greats are just not beings of this planet. And he knew greatness because it was expected in his family. His current great achievement was learning which piano bars in DC would let him work off his food and bar tab by playing background jazz and modern melodies for hours.
On the night of January 18, 2028, Russell who fantasized about affording a used Steinway piano to perform at bars in DC, discovered his instrument of fantasy in the hands of a young pianist.
He was escorting his grandmother, Laura to a fundraising event to combat Parkinson’s disease and it was a double celebration as it was also to honor Anthony Finelli’s 84th birthday celebration.
Anthony Finelli, inundated with the disease was the older brother of Philip Finelli and uncle to the famous Guy Finelli and half-uncle to Alex Santucci.
There he meets pretty Annie Finelli, daughter of Guy Finelli for the first time. She had an immediate impact on him while playing Beethoven on a Steinway that had not only captivated his interest but raised his awareness to youthful beauty. His attention caught, he charmingly offered to help tutor with her piano lessons: -
Her eyes were green and magnificent. He noticed her half-smile releasing her beauty. It made every thought of his go away. “Well you should,” he said as he finally found words. “You’re quite good. Maybe I can help you sometime in the future? I have played and taught piano for too many years.”
Annie on the other hand, in her
youthful exuberance also felt a stirring for Russell, and very eloquently
turned down his offer:
Her smile grew larger. “That is
a very nice offer, but I play basketball at home a lot and run track right now
at school, which takes up most of my free time.” She stopped for a moment and
let herself think about the future with Russell being her piano mentor; she
felt a stirring in her stomach as her nervous system was shooting adrenaline
like a gunfight in the wild, wild west. It was a disturbing, yet overall
pleasing experience. “Of course, it would have to be with this piano!”
In a sense, their mutual love for playing the piano, in retrospect, a Steinway, played a prominent part in igniting hidden sensitivities between them.
“Yes of course this piano. It is…” he laid his fingers on the keys, almost fondling the texture, “quite something… Well, maybe I’ll see you again when you are graduating or something.”
Annie Finelli was given the nickname “Miss Pretty Please,” by her grandmother, Carol who doted on her and counted her the favorite among the grandchildren.
Inevitably, Annie’s first word uttered with consistent meaning was, “Please.” And, interestingly, she formulated the importance of that word after months of observation of other “brattish behavior” from other kids in playgroups. She understood from the tiny age of two that it mattered not what words they uttered, barely understandable or garbled, it was the magic word of please attached to it that made transactions come their way. She possessed intelligence far beyond her years and ingenuity above expectation.
Annie bizarrely survived a near-death situation when her mother, FBI agent, Anna Cobb, pregnant with her near full-term was murdered. The Finellis’ and Santucci's’ considered it a miracle that she survived the brutal murder. Annie guessed the murder to be a plot to keep her mother quiet. Her father, Guy, had cut her out of her mother’s womb right after her mother was fatally shot.
Annie Finelli’s near photographic memory led to her feeling low-level anxiety and fearing that she was a product of artificial intelligence – part cyborg and part human.
Annie theorized that her bright
red hair came from human genes, but her outstanding, growing athleticism was
mainly cyborg, even though athletic greatness seemed to permeate her family,
she speculated. Either way, she seemed to be smarter than anybody else.
Annie grew in athletic prowess
and by age fifteen had developed into a beautiful young woman.
She was looking forward to her fifteenth
birthday party and she loved being almost legal to be with boys and was
enjoying life.
Russell looked forward to
meeting her at the Enclave, after a lapse of seventeen months, eager to meet
her once again after their initial first meeting at the fundraising event. This
time he escorted his grandma to Annie’s birthday party which caught her by
surprise at his appearance.
He and his grandma walked into
the party forty minutes late, just in time to see Annie blow out her candles.
Their eyes lock, and Russell knew then that “she was the one.”
He is soon made aware about ‘the firestorm of Annie
Finelli who scorched his heart.” It was a love that scared him. Her age a
deterrent, he pursued his love for music, confessing his “sins” as he perceived
himself a pervert and sought a long-term counseling relationship with a lay
Deacon, Vincent Robey.
About this time Russell was having girl trouble. He was in love with a fifteen-year-old redhead that he could not touch erotically – at least legally; was having great sex with his girlfriend – in a doomed relationship; and was involved with a married woman – trading great orgasms, but not intercourse.
Annie in the meantime rose to be the WJ icon for
volleyball, excelling in the sports and athletics, taking her team into
championships and creating raving news in the DC area.
She went through a series of setbacks and insecurities
during the course of her rise to stardom and was encouraged by her grandfather,
Philip throughout her uncertainties. During these times, her thoughts would
divert to her mother.
She thought of her mother for a moment and
felt a tingler whirl down
her spine. They were together now for this
moment. She would slay the
dragons of sweaty boys for her tonight. As
she opened her eyes and heard the
sold-out crowd raising the roof with their
cheers, it had been pleasing to block
out the obstacles. She was in the Cloud now
with “Pistol Pete”, seeing him
flow with the ball as an extension of his arm
and get to the spots of the court
that he had taken a million shots from in
practice. Annie would not take a shot
unless she could make ninety percent of them
in practice.
Ten years of practice and watching the Cloud.
She was ready to
run like a Spartan leading the Big Train into
battle.
Annie was twenty-one when they wed.
The Chapel of our Lady of Lourdes at Georgetown Prep was a perfect setting for the wedding of Russell and Annie. It was dedicated in 1933 and built with stone and marble from Europe in an Italian Renaissance architecture style. The elegance inside was matched by the beauty of the bride, groom, and their guests that packed the pews. A full Catholic Mass would be performed with the ceremony along with music provided by Russell’s students at Prep.
Annie, by now had begun working at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland as an Aeronautical Engineer with an eye on entering the astronaut program as soon as she became eligible. Her star appeal had not gone unnoticed by NASA and some started discussing grooming her to be the face of future travels in Space Exploration.
Russell had ended a successful run of touring the world with his popular and classical music. He returned to Georgetown Prep as their music director but had already moved his Steinway Piano and his other possessions from the suite to the guest house next to Phillip and Carol’s house. He wanted to teach and write music, play with his trio locally, and be near his family for a while.
Amazingly, Russell’s tour in the winter and spring months was such a success that the summer leg was being reworked to have him play with a trio and then with the entire Symphony in the middle and the end of concerts. His CD, The Slammer, had crashed the Pop, R&B, and Dance charts. It was now in the top-40 in all three UK and European charts.
And more invitations to tour would follow.
At the age of thirty-five in June 2049, Annie was officially the forty-second human to walk on Mars and the tenth woman.
She had been artificially inseminated with Russell’s sperm before the mission to become the first pregnant woman in space travel. Her pregnancy during the eight-month mission would be studied for future space travel, perhaps out of the solar system.
After her return to Earth, she would continue to live in her Grandmom Carol’s large home with Russell and their new baby. Her Grandmom, who was now eighty-four, was looking forward towards decades of good health and caring for her new great-grandchild.
Of the Parkwood Enclave, a poem becomes:
In the decades to come;
it would be full of sprinting into the extended sunlight,
bashing the baseball suddenly in spring,
swimming in the pool throughout the summer,
feasting on football and the falling of leaves,
bouncing the basketball below the bubble,
surviving the winter and sledding in the snow,
enjoying every feast with family and friends,
gathering to converse and spread love with good cheer,
and to search the stars in the moonlight sonata.
At home on Earth, she would give birth to several children and nurture them along with Russell with the heritage and values of their families to live into the next century. All would grow to be good souls on Earth, and one would seek the heavens of the Milky Way. – the end.
With the end of this short summary, I must say that the book has been a delight to review, an emotional roller coaster in a way, and one that would make P.E. Fischetti synonymous by its association. It would be a real joy to read the full text of the book in order to appreciate the full story. A summary would not be justifiable to its contents.
Shobana Gomes
Poet/Writer
Malaysia
31/12/2020
Shobana,
ReplyDeleteI am blown away by your work. You are someone with a very special talent. Thank you so much for your work. I hope the story did touch you as a woman - P.E.Fischetti