Stumbling Blocks and Stepping Stones is told largely through the reminiscences of Paolo Bruni and is focused on his friendship with Nicola Nunzi D'Annunzio over four decades. It contrasts the insular world of the ethnic neighborhood, one littered with stumbling blocks of gangs and ethnic rivalries that might undo their stepping up in the changing world of post-war urbanizing America. In their encounter with the complex and corporatized Catholicism of the Jesuits, the almost militaristic-evangelical army of the Roman Catholic Church the serious and athletic Paolo, and the prankish and satirical Nunzi, each in his way becomes estranged from their faith. Paolo and Nunzi step and stumble forward with often hilarious and erotic escapades, athletic achievements and misadventures, surprising theological perceptions and tragic personal events in a time and place that not only shaped them, but which their venerated educators encouraged them to set afire.