5 parts Complete MatureA bit of a cross between a funny A Bronx Tale, a bizarre The Razors Edge, and the 70's movie, Coolie High, my memoir -The Edge of Whiteness- is a sort of a quirky coming of age story. It is also a humorous and edgy social commentary on one community's reaction to the inexorable march of change which defined a unique time period - the funky early 1970's.
1969. Brooklyn smolders in the volatile aftermath of the recent race riots. The family of young Joey Montaperto flees their beloved Italian neighborhood for a New Jersey suburb so painfully white that it makes the TV show, My Three Sons, seem exotic. Ironically, when the high school there is then later forcefully integrated, the sensitive Joey is confronted with an even more brutal racial conflict. Unexpectedly rescued from a hallway ambush by a murderous yet artistic loner, though, he is subsequently introduced to a fascinating new world of black culture. Joey finds his soul, and 'soul', in the writings of Malcolm X, a doomed first love with a sizzling, but heroin plagued, Puerto Rican hairdresser, and, ultimately, a spiritual journey into the study of Islam. This causes a major conflict within his Italian Catholic family, and the Mafia restaurant where he is employed as a dishwasher.