Thursday,
May 10, 2007
Book: ‘When the World was Young’;
by Tony Romano: Italian American Family Coping in
The
ANNOTICO Report
Tony Romano , an
English and psychology teacher at Fremd High School
in Palatine, will have his first novel, When the World was Young,
published Tuesday, May 22, by HarperCollins.
The book centers on an Italian-American family living in
His work has also
been featured on National Public Radios The Sound of Writing
series, in the Chicago Tribune and nominated for two Pushcart Prizes. Romano
was born in
For
those not familiar with the Chicago area, Glen Ellyn, the site of the newspaper
, almost rubs shoulders with Batavia, the location of the the notorious
Rotolo Middle school teacher Matt Myers
of Fuggedaboudit, infamy. Palatine
where Tony Romano teaches, is less than 15 miles from
It would only be appropriate if Johnny and his mom, Marina Amoroso-Levato, and the Order Sons of Italy that supported
them were involved in such a ceremony. If Myers,
Perhaps
Mr. Romano would be willing to offer aspiring author Matt Myers tips on
how to have your FIRST Novel be published by a top tier publisher. :)
News
Leader
By
Wilson Brown, staff writer
Glen
Ellyn News
Tue
May 08, 2007,
INTERVIEW:
Q: What made you pick the subject Italian-Americans living in
A: I guess Ive always been drawn to the past.
Im kind of obsessed with nostalgia and when I read a book, by the end of a
book I always feel nostalgic for the beginning of the book. And I think that
was the big emphasis in my head was to create that feeling of being nostalgic
for the past. The 50s have a certain mythology to it that Ive always been drawn to. It was kind of insulated and they werent always open and direct and obviously thats
not all good, but Ive always been fascinated by
people who keep secrets and the stories that are inherent to that. The novel is
told from several points-of-view so not any one character has the complete
story. So I guess I was intrigued by that too. The reader needs to put it all
together at the end of the book.
Q: What made you
want to write it that way using
unreliable narrators?
A: I think Ive always enjoyed books written that
way. (William) Faulkner played around with that a lot. Ive always been drawn to the way thats structured. It
seems to me like real life. Nobody really does know the whole picture. I
remember going to the wake of my best friend about 10 years ago now. At the wake I
realized there were so many sides to him I never even saw. And this was my best
friend. How could I not have seen that? So I guess Ive
always been drawn to that idea.
Q: Is the story
at all autobiographical? Does it have any autobiographical elements in it?
A: In terms of events and plot turns and all of that, probably very little if
any. But in terms of the motivations of characters and the fears and emotions thats all me. But are the events
true? No.
Q: How do you
balance teaching, family and writing at the same time?
A: Theres some discipline involved. My habits have changed, but when I
wrote this I would try to sit down and write 600 words a day and I would try to
do that in the morning. At school I have a period or two of preparation as they
call it and I would just sneak into an empty classroom and write. My favorite
place is to just go out on the deck before the family wakes up. One of the
habits is getting 600 words down. In order to get in sort of that dream-like
state it almost takes a good hour or two hours before it really starts to flow.
Q: Youve written short stories before and you were featured on
NPR. What made you want to go ahead and write a whole novel?
A: Mainly frustration. Because I had a collection of stories and I thought I
had an agent for a while and she was sending it out and every publisher said,
We like it. And every publisher said,
Short fiction doesnt sell.
Tell him to come back when he has a novel. I said, OK, if thats
what you want me to do, then Ill write a
novel.
Q: So do you
think you were forced into writing a novel?
A: No, its probably more confidence. Young writers should focus on getting
their craft down and I think short stories is a way of
doing that. I was at Northeastern (University) for a while and I took the same
creative writing class several times and we would just work on the same story
rewriting and rewriting. So I probably didnt
have a novel in me yet or I just didnt have the
confidence. Maybe I didnt have much to say or
enough to say. But then after you put a collection of stories together you just
say, You know, I think I can do this.
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