A large part of Canadian literature being produced today is being done by immigrants and the children of immigrants. Struggling between the dominant culture and the history and traditions of their parents, whom they desire to honor, these writers adopt modes of representation ranging from the elegiac to the ironic. / Nino Ricci's first book Lives of the Saints begins from the perspective of Vittorio as an adult, but the narrative that the reader follows is developed from his perspective as a child focusing on his ethnic roots. The narrative structure is two-fold: it is a combination of the objectivity of a child's innocent observations with a child's sense of wonder and magic and a strong influence from the adult narrator's voice. / This thesis will examine the narrative approach, the rhetorical devices and the use of myth that Ricci harnesses in his novel in order to show how his work is marked with ambiguity and paradox which points to the psychological condition of immigrants in Canada. The discussion will also focus on some of the literary models that influenced Ricci's narrative, such as Alice Munro, Carlo Levi and Corrado Alvaro.

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