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AUTHOR’S OBSESSION
By GUY D’ASTOLFO
YOUNGSTOWN
Best-selling author Adriana Trigiani is about to hit the road to promote her upcoming novel, “The Shoemaker’s Wife,” and will make two Youngstown-area appearances for a book discussion and signing.
On April 4, Trigiani will appear on NBC’s “The Today Show” in the morning. Afterward, she will fly to Youngstown where she will appear that evening at Our Lady of Mount Carmel church hall, 343 Via Mount Carmel.
Trigiani will also appear at The Lake Club, 1140 Paulin Road, Youngstown, the morning of April 5.
Trigiani’s 12 novels have been translated and sold in more than 35 countries, and her work will also soon be seen on the big and small screens. She wrote the screenplay for — and will direct — the film version of her novel “Big Stone Gap.” She has also written the film adaptation of “Lucia, Lucia” and “Very Valentine.”
“The Shoemaker’s Wife,” which will be released April 3, follows the lives of Trigiani’s grandparents, who emigrated from Italy in the early 1900s to carve out lives in the United States.
Trigiani talked about “The Shoemaker’s Wife” in this question-and-answer exchange with The Vindicator:
Q. You’ve described writing “The Shoemaker’s Wife” as the artistic obsession of your life. What made this story so compelling for you?
A. I’m slightly obsessed by the role that fate plays in the forward progression of our lives. I’m equally enamored of the notion of luck, and what it can mean in the landscape of a person’s experience. My grandparents, on both sides of my family continue to be endlessly fascinating to me. They were true progressives. There was a hunger within them to do well at work and at home. No one sat on their hands — the women worked, as did the men. They juggled work as housewives, and then would go out in the world and work in a factory. My grandparents were hit with tragedy, family responsibilities, endured freak accidents, world wars and disappointments, but remained hardworking, positive people who endured. I guess that’s why I’m compelled to tell their stories — it’s to fill in the blanks and glean whatever inspiration I can take from their life lessons. They guide me to live better, still. And even from the next life, their lives while they were on earth are a challenge to me to work better, be a better wife and mother and to live life to its fullest.
Q. Many Americans whose grandparents were immigrants will relate to “The Shoemaker’s Wife.” But they might not fully appreciate the bravery and excitement implicit in leaving one continent for another in the days before airplanes and trans- Atlantic telephones. Do you hope to rekindle appreciation for these adventurous and determined people?
A. I think that one of the most satisfying tasks in a historical novel is to take the past and infuse it with a sense of contemporary urgency and detail. I found “The Shoemaker’s Wife” an utterly modern tale. In truth, my grandparents chose one another to marry. They fell madly in love and six months later, they were married. They seemed to be doing all the choosing. My grandmother, Lucia, made a special point of telling me that her marriage to my grandfather, Carlo, was by choice, and not arranged. Many and most marriages back then, according to my grandmother, were arranged. She wanted me to understand that she married my grandfather, a shoemaker and veteran of World War I, knowing that he would eventually die from being hit with mustard gas in the trenches of France. She rolled the dice on her future — because one day with her husband was worth it. It’s a big, epic love affair and it was an honor to decode the letters and history and bring it to life again.
Q. In researching the book, you visited Italy and the places where your grandparents lived. Could you sense what they might have felt?
A. When I went up the Passo Presolana for the first time, I was filled with so much emotion. That became, in an instant, my mountain too. I return there often with my husband and daughter, and we find the same feeling of belonging there — the Italian Alps will do that to you. There’s a feeling of a climb toward heaven in that part of Italy. I love Foggia where my father’s father is from, and the Veneto, where my father’s mother comes from, and Rome, and the glorious south, and the Isle of Capri. I love Portofino and Santa Margherita too — but those Alps, the lakes of that region fill me with a sense of connection and completion that I am hard-pressed to describe. The research for “The Shoemaker’s Wife” was one revelation after another. I cried a lot during the process — and there were moments when I got chills when I’d uncover some small piece of information that would lead to the development of a plot turn in the novel.
Q. Immigrants are always coming to America, and mainly from poor countries. With this in mind, do you have a message for today’s Americans regarding their attitude toward immigrants?
A. I do. Immigrants are the life blood of this country. They are to be welcomed, honored and treasured. As an Italian-American, I have a deep kinship with my Latino brothers and sisters, whether they are Puerto Rican, Mexican, or from South America. We are them. They are us. The same slurs and put-downs my grandparents endured are heard about the new immigrants. My blood boils when I hear phrases like “lazy,” “dirty,” “ignorant” and “here to scam the system.” They said the same things about my grandparents and their families. It’s an outrage. Shame on any of the politicians who carp that immigrants should go. We should be taking bold steps to give them rightful citizenship. Who built this country? They did. There should be a monument to them, not a debate about whether they belong here. I’m here because my grandparents worked hard, and served their country. This is our America, and it will remain so, as long as we cherish the immigrants who built and maintain this great country.