Thank Goliath

Thank Goliath by Domenic Aversa is both fun and tragic, emotional and entertaining. With cutting intelligence and the wisdom acquired with age, Aversa sews together memories and experiences about the power of forgiveness, love and adversity.

A memoir at its core. Written with impeccable free-flowing prose, especially brilliant in dialogue, reading at times like a novel.

A personal yet universal tale that is canny, engrossing and distinctly inspiring. Self-Publishing Review
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A fast-paced, intense, and colorful read detailing transformative adventures and experiences.

The larger-than-life narrative is punctuated with mother-son dialogue that’s penetrating, satirical, and at times provides comic relief to the serious tone.

Readers will find his story compelling and instructive in the way it redefines life’s challenges as boundless opportunities for growth. Blue Ink Reviews

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Thank Goliath introduces us to one of the better memoir characters in recent years: his mother, Benedetta.

The book’s best moments are his conversations with her, which make Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland sound as staid as city council meetings.

Witty and poignant…readers should devour this memoir. Aversa tells the page-turning story of his complicated relationship with his indomitable mother. Indie Reader

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Thank Goliath is the compelling memoir of a first-generation Canadian and his immigrant mother.

The book’s memoir elements fold into moving celebrations of his mother, Benedetta. It shares stories about how she overcame massive challenges in her own life; these are made to parallel and inform Aversa’s own responses to struggles.

Their twinned tales function as an accessible parable of personal success, with standout scenes showing the ways in which Aversa and Benedetta worked through and overcame their obstacles. Forward Reviews

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A skillfully written account of a complicated life.

Tightly constructed, moving along at a pleasant clip with lots of brisk dialogue. Kirkus Reviews

"Rather than run from adversity, we developed a relationship with it. As Goliath grew, we grew."

Born to impoverished, Italian immigrants in 1960s Canada, Domenic Aversa is creative and restless. He shares a busy but happy home with his hardworking father and doting, strict, traditional mother.

When his childhood reputation as a troublemaker drives him to juvenile delinquency and his mother to uncontrollable anger, Domenic decides the best way to overcome adversity is not to rebel but to stare it down. Determined to prove himself, he is drawn toward increasingly difficult and dangerous challenges around the world. He supervises abandoned and abused children, trains delinquent military cadets, starts a business in the violent underbelly of the Soviet Union, takes down white-collar criminals across America, and even joins the war on HIV/AIDS. He faces each giant, stone in hand, determined to overcome adversity and help those in need.

Closer to home, his mother, Benedetta, puts on a cheerful façade as a pillar of the community. But with increasingly severe health problems, she is facing a Goliath of her own within a healthcare system unequipped or perhaps unwilling to help. As Domenic’s compass slowly points him back home, he realizes saving his mother might be his toughest challenge yet.

Benedetta and Domenic’s close, complex mother-son relationship is the backdrop for this poignant and inspiring memoir that reminds us that there is more than one way to slay a giant. More importantly, each challenge offers an opportunity for growth, resolution, and acceptance.