Christina and the Whitefish

Greetings!

Christina and the Whitefish is a psychological thriller. Riveting, haunting, and beautifully written.

I came to love and appreciate the characters Whitefish, the resilient crusty old Vietnam vet, and Christina, the desperate in need of healing, returning veteran of a tour of Iraq. 

We knew Stephen Vittoria was a brilliant filmmaker – look him up. You won’t be disappointed.

We knew he could trace the depth of empire through his and Mumia Abu-Jamal’s magnum opus the trilogy Murder Inc. Empire, Genocide, and Manifest Destiny.  

Vittoria’s debut novel Christina and the Whitefish is deeply personal. Featuring witnesses, soldiers, and occupiers who are perpetrators. Through the chance meeting of the protagonists, it traces negotiating a way forward while exploring the devastation wrought on two soldiers of empire.  

Survivors’ scars are more than physical: purple hearts cannot measure perdition. The story navigates the contours of trauma that does not go away when the uniforms and battle medals come off. It comes back with every single soldier and occupies their psyche.

Wrapped in slogans and often flags, lied to, these kids are kidnapped: they are innocents who become foot soldiers of American empire. When they land at home or at the VA hospital, the reality of the lives they lost and the lives they took is inescapable. This will hold true for Israeli soldiers facing the reality of the genocide that they are participating in.

This is no historical tale. 

It explores our hidden wounds: physical and mental anguish that haunt all of us living in America.   

It is also nuanced, imbued with grit and depth. The novel’s compelling back-and-forth character development drew me in. The writing is full of details and scenes drawn directly from Vittoria’s actual life from his youth on the Jersey Shore to his home in Los Angeles. The descriptions of perfectly paired red wine, unvarying culinary routine: oatmeal and mediterranean salads, and yoga on the beach. And as well it is all soaked in Vittoria’s Jersey shore Italian lore. 

Art and imagination will determine our future. 

Christina and the Whitefish at once honors the depth of complicity and the power of emerging, if not intact, at least with the capacity to know the truth.

The way forward is unsure, but I know we have to own every moment we are in. And we have to own the future. 

If you are not on the front lines in Chicago, Los Angeles or Washington DC facing down the ICE storm troopers, we must do what we can from where we are. 

Build resistance.

Make Art. 

Tackle hard truths.

Be honest. 

Believe in the future

Keep reading, writing, and resisting. 

When We Love, We Win

When We Survive, We Win

When We Fight, We Win

Noelle Hanrahan, Esq. P.I.

Legal Director

P.S. I am going to take a moment to honor Dr. Rafael Moquel, Cozumel Mexico, a heart surgeon. Twenty-some-odd years ago, his intervention ensured that Stephen Vittoria had the opportunity to be a revolutionary writer, movie maker, and now novelist for the last twenty years. 

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