Thompson Street

About the Book

This book spans the 100-year period from 1850 up until the end of the Korean War. The author successfully transports you back into the history and customs of a tumultuous era.

You are treated to a colorful picture gallery of fascinating and real life portraits of events and people. You become a participant in the battles of World War 1 at Messines Ridge and Chateau Thierrey, the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, the poverty and living conditions during the Great Depression, and the patriotism of a great and united nation during World War II.

Mr Cutro presents the reader with a kaleidoscope of fascinating characters from gangsters, bank robbers, scoundrels, and picaresque children with whom he shared life on the Streets of New York.

You are given a "Ringside seat" as you view one of the bloodiest battles in military history fought under unbelievable weather conditions and against overwhelming odds in the rugged frozen mountains of North Korea.

Here is a copy of my book review!!! SOHO JOURNAL WINTER EDITION 2008 “ In some sense, THOMPSON STREET is a collection of character portraits: in a greater sense the book is an ordering of encounters that might otherwise seem chaotic or haphazard into a legible and meaningful narrative. Author Ralph Cutro packs the pages of his first book with characters as realistic as they are fascinating: moody gangsters, abject scoundrels, wayward children, romantic heroes and the like. Thompson Street has, in other words, all the makings of a great novel. Cutro - in the tradition of writers like Henry Roth and John Dos Pasos - both of whom found success through their depictions of immigrant life in New York City - chronicles the history of his ancestors in turn-of- the -century Greenwich Village. Thompson Street is packed with grit and grime, but refreshingly little of it seems contrived. Mr. Cutro’s first literary effort is - perhaps unintentionally - brilliant. The quasi-cinematic nature of this work- the editorial proofs, layers, ’cut to’s,’ his rendering of a life from multiple perspectives - mimics the kind of fragmentation that has essentially characterized the immigrant experience in literary fiction for the past century. Cutro also stretches the limits of literary genre by blending fiction with biography and autobiography, creating a disorienting, topsy-turvy narrative wherein the reader must constantly right himself - or give himself up for lost. This inspiring and inspired story proves that, like his ancestors before him, Ralph Cutro is carving out a place for himself within the landscape of American culture in a uniquely American way.” - CP.

About the Author

Ralph Cutro, born and raised on Thompson Street, is a graduate of St. Peter?s College with advanced degrees from the University of Madrid, and Montclair State University. Ralph is a retired educator and a lifetime member of The Chosin Few, ?An eternal band of brothers.?