Loose Screws: Anecdotes from a Bronx boy who has lived around the world

Loose Screws is a collection of sixty-nine amusing, often touching, anecdotes from the life of a Bronx boy who has lived and traveled throughout the world. The author, Gerry Tortorelli, is a retired business executive, who immigrated to Switzerland in his thirties with his young family. With stints in England and Canada and frequent visits to the family roots in Italy, his stories explore many cultures.

Whether it be the story of how his sister celebrates Christmas in “The Twelve Weeks of Advent,” or how German words can be misinterpreted in English in “A Good Fahrt….and a Douche,” the anecdotes have a personal touch with which the reader can connect. A 22-year-old grudge is settled in the story “Toothpaste, Mayonnaise, and Big Ben” while fundraising for a new church in Canada is detailed in “A Pregnant Nun and a Chicken at Mass.”

Not far away from any story, is Gerry’s wife (the Queen), his daughters (the Princesses), and his serf sons-in-law. Loose Screws is a unique view of a life through the eyes of the one who lived it, a kid from the Bronx.