Kid Richie

About the Book

Kid Richie, A Kid from Brooklyn is a story about a man’s journey through life. It begins with his earliest years as a young boy in a neighborhood of predominantly Sicilian/Italian families and portrays the dichotomy of influences at work in him between the Catholic Church and the permeating presence of Mafia life. Vignettes of many colorful characters will cause you to laugh or cry, but most of all it chronicles some events of what one might call his “hoodlum days,” to a reversal of his behavior and entrance into a monastic life, and his experiences therein. After seven years as a friar, a change of heart and disillusionment brought him back to the old neighborhood but not his old ways. Having to start over, he set his sights on becoming a medical doctor. These personal stories take the reader with him and his family from New York to Europe to California and to Texas. In a style reminiscent of Mark Twain, the author writes of the experiences of his “three lives,” which will entertain, amuse, enlighten, and inspire.

About the Author

The third of six children, Richard Cancemi was born at the height of the depression in Brooklyn, New York. He graduated with a degree in Chemistry from St. Francis College and went on to attend medical school at State University of New York, Downstate Medical Center (SUNY). He later specialized in Adolescent Psychiatry. He is the proud father of five children, and the grandfather of four. These anecdotal accounts were written initially to satisfy his children’s curiosity, and he later acceded to their urgings to publish. He now resides in Texas with his wife, Ursula, to whom he has been married for fifty years.