Thursday, May 10, 2007

Book: ‘When the World was Young’; by Tony Romano: Italian American Family Coping in Chicago,

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 Chicago coping with the death of their youngest son while balancing Old World traditions with those in their new homeland.

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 Italy  near Naples  but moved to Chicago as an infant.

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 Batavia. Perhaps someone could see that a copy of Tony's book was presented to Matt Meyer. Perhaps also a copy to  Rotolo Principal Donald McKinney  and Batavia School Superintendent Jack Barshinger who were complicit.


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, McKinney, or Barshinger declined such a presentation, it could be held "in absentia", with probably even more media attention, and even more shame heaped on the "oblivious and insensitive" academics.

 

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. :)

 

Local author ventures forth with first novel

News Leader

By Wilson Brown, staff writer

Glen Ellyn News

Tue May 08, 2007,

 

Glen Ellyn, IL -

 

INTERVIEW:
Q: What made you pick the subject  Italian-Americans living in Chicago in the late 1950s?
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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Italia USA: http://www.ItaliaUSA.com (Formerly Italy at St Louis)

 

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Annotico Email: annotico@earthlink.net