The Secret Mitzvah of Lucio Burke

Susan Merskey is freelance writer in London, Ontario.

On a summer afternoon in 1933, Lucio Burke knocked a great bird out of
the Toronto sky with a single perfect throw. As a result, he found
himself pulled into history—into contact with a radicalized labour
movement, anti-Semitism, Mussolini’s fascism—and onto the baseball
mound as pitcher in the infamous game that took place just before the
riot at Christie Pits.

The Toronto of 1933 was a city of new immigrants—Jews, Italians, and
Chinese—who dreamed and worked their way to a brand new life, thrilled
by the talkies and in dread of welfare. Ruthie, aged 19, nicknamed the
Commie, observed all this, seducing Lucio at the same time as Lucio’s
best friend and next-door neighbour, Dubie, declared his love for Ruth.

Many of the attitudes that would surface during the later period
chronicled in Irving Abella’s None Is Too Many are foreshadowed in
this funny and moving story of young love, friendship, the nature of the
miraculous, and a quest to change the world. The Secret Mitzvah of Lucio
Burke is a lively, fascinating portrait of a world gone by, and of the
lives of ordinary men and women who lived in Toronto during the summer
of the New Deal.