"Bad News Turns Out to Be
Good News Indeed"
Folks, it doesn't get more unbiased than this! - Joe
article by celebrated sports anchor
Tina Cervasio
published in The Italian Tribune
Joe Cervasio has been known to his business colleagues as “Joe C.” for more than thirty years. On the other hand, Joseph Rocco Cervasio is the name he chooses to be identified with as the author of his first novel, Bad News on the Doorstep. There is no hesitation when asked why.
“That’s my name, and it’s a tribute to my father, Rocco.” But it doesn’t take long after beginning your read of this family epic, spiritual journey, and coming of age book that you conclude that this fifty-six year old corporate executive bestows honor on more segments of “the greatest generation” than just his dad.
“When I was commuting seventy-seven miles each way to work back in the early nineties, the frustration was getting to me until my wife Maria suggested using the time in the car to write a book. With tape recorder in hand, I began the challenge, and just finished it nearly ten years later!”
Joe’s friend and New Milford , NJ native, Ed Marinaro, (All American fellow-Cornell footballer and Emmy Award-winning cast member of “Hills Street Blues” and “Sisters”) had this to say about the novel: “ ‘Happy Days’ and ‘Laverne and Shirley’ meet the ‘Sopranos’ in Joe Cervasio’s entertaining read.”
Joe is quick to point out the essence of his Jersey genre: “On those long drives I couldn’t get my mind off all the great people back in my roots who invested their lives in mine, or who were unknowingly my heroes. It had to be about them---the decisions and sacrifices they made and the alternatives they could have enjoyed. And, I could not forget the late fifties in Jersey , particularly 1959.”
Bad News on the Doorstep is published in a preliminary edition by AuthorHouse and may be ordered directly at 1-800-839-8640, 1-888-280-7715, or at www.authorhouse.com, or on amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com. A search is now underway for a real publisher.
If you’re a Jersey person, wish you were one, or are just looking for that summer time read that you won’t put down, Cervasio’s 415-page tapestry of this time period and its colorful characters may just be it. A legendary football game between Belleville and Nutley High Schools in 1958 sets up a nostalgic look back at this decade when the middle class living of Cervasio’s featured family, the Bonaduccis, clashes with the temptations of mob affiliation and the allure of the entertainment industry. Meet Marietta, Rocky, and Frankie Bonaducci, as well as their family and friends---“Petee Five Corners”, Aunt Bella Bruno, also known as “Bella LaStarr”; Gino “Sneaks” Babula; Tommy “Two Tones” Anthony; and many more saints and sinners.
“The book is written in memory of my mother, Marietta , my father, Rocky, and my first football hero, Frankie D’Angelo. Of course, it’s fiction, and I never met Frank, but characters evolve that certainly resemble them, or at least what I remember them to be.”
Football, the doo wop music of the period, Italian-American living in the Newark area, Sinatra, Dion and the Belmonts, a counterfeit plot, mysterious deaths, the Buddy Holly crash, and spiritual references make Cervasio’s work an emotional journey through the year 1959. It is then sensitively capped with a leap to 1971, ending with a nostalgic look back from the present.
Cervasio has written throughout his career as a veteran of the resort development industry. A corporate executive, leadership development expert, strategic coach, entrepreneur, and demanded public speaker---his business plans, motivational talks, and training programs initially dominated. However, he then had a string of articles published in The Crescent, the newsletter of the Cornell Football Association. The response across the country was too much for him not to accelerate his writing projects.
Some of the other praise for Bad News on the Doorstep is note-worthy. Dr. Michael Kormanicki, a colleague of Joe’s from his days at Marriott Vacation Club International, readily saw the leadership principles that Cervasio represents in his professional work evolving as themes throughout Bad News on the Doorstep: “The characters, plot, dialogue, and emerging themes go well beyond Joe Cervasio’s seemingly nostalgic look back. In an era of self-absorption and hubris, he has given us a hero who values humility, compassion, courage, trust, and perseverance; it is a study of leadership and spiritual development at all levels, as well as a great read for the whole family.”
Joanne Cocchiola Oliver, Associate Counsel for the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority and Nutley , NJ Mayor, expressed her appreciation for how her neighborhood in Essex County was portrayed: “This is a heartwarming story about a legendary event. The characters and scenarios are so true to life that it allows the reader to live every moment. Reading the book has made me proud to be an Italian American, more proud to be a citizen of my hometown of Nutley , and most proud of my friend, Joe Cervasio.”
Cervasio is transparent about his crafting of the book. “The writing adventure was an emotional experience for me. While I had fun with my imagination, some foggy memories of growing up from Fifth Street and Bloomfield Avenue in Newark, to Belleville Stadium, and then to the Oval in Nutley paraded a kaleidoscope of characters before my mind’s eye that often brought a tear, and sometimes a chuckle.”
The title of the book comes from Don McLean’s legendary song, “American Pie”, and introduces another phenomena of the work. “There’s no question about it,” says Cervasio. “The old Newark Star Ledger was our Bible for everyday living and our telescope around the world. It’s one of the lead characters in the book.”
Except for his years in college, Joe has never moved from New Jersey where he lives in Nutley with his wife Maria. After earning his degree in Organizational Behavior at the School of Industrial Relations at Cornell, he received his MBA from the New York University Stern School of Business. Today he commutes from Jersey regularly to his offices in Boca Raton , Florida and Ridgedale , Missouri . “The time at airport gates and in hotel rooms enabled me to jump on the computer at all hours of the day and night.” As Vice President of Organizational Development for the Resort Division of the Bluegreen Corporation and Director of the Bluegreen Leadership Institute, Cervasio travels the country telling the tales that fashioned Bad News on the Doorstep. “My audiences know about the Sopranos and that I’m from Essex County , so I give them a peek at the middle class lives of the rest of the population and identify the leadership and personal development lessons that can be learned from the less glamorous, but law-abiding. We have fun, makes some history in our business, and change a few people’s lives.”
The screenplay is in the works. “Yes, at 4 AM most mornings we visit that project!” Marinaro and Joe Pesci (through his cousin Joe Marra, a Belleville High classmate) have advised Cervasio he shouldn’t stop with the book. “Marra told me Pesci said … it made him laugh.”
In the end, Bad News on the Doorstep is good news for the reader. Heroes roam the pages in every chapter, and lessons for life are always a by-product in Cervasio’s first novel. There will be other books. “I have to write about my business,” says Joe. “You think the characters in this book are interesting? But we’ll always return to Jersey . Where else? I haven’t left yet,” concludes Cervasio, a real Jersey guy, telling the “good news” of growing up in the Garden State.
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Tina Cervasio may be reached at [email protected] , www.tinacervasio.com or at 201-723-2512. The author can be contacted at [email protected] or at 973-725-8713 or 561-912-8186. Book signings and speaking engagements are being set now in New Jersey and Florida .
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