Household Saints

This tale of a family in Little Italy is “a minor miracle . . . documenting the madness and the grace of God in everyday life” ( Newsweek ).   On a 1950s September night so hot that the devout Catholics of Little Italy wonder if New York City has slipped into hell, the butcher Joseph Santangelo invites his friends to play pinochle. At the end of a long, sweaty, boozy evening, his friend Lino Falconetti, addled by wine and heat, bets the hand of his daughter, Catherine—and San