My father adored Thomas Mann’s Joseph and His Brothers and read the whole (1200 pages mind you) at least twice. I’ve always been put off because it’s one heavy book (pounds and pounds) with big long sentences, huge paragraphs and…
Blog Archives
The Kalamazoo Corset Strike
I might be including the Kalamazoo Corset Company Strike of 1912 in my next novel. You’ve heard of it? Kalamzoo, Michigan was churning out corsets at a great rate: 800 women produced 1.5 million per year when the U.S. population…
Posted in WWWS
Lula’s Beer Cheese
Readers of When We Were Strangers may remember Lula, the cook and housekeeper for the Cleveland workhouse where Irma made collars. That was in the 1880’s. After the book came out, a suggestion was made by HarperCollins to write a…
A metaphor of ants
A little domestic problem: little ants called “sweet ants” in our kitchen marching around on the counter. We tried mechanical means (squashing them) but more kept coming, lines and lines of ants. Thinking “better killing through chemistry,” I got out…
Looking for Lucia in Ashtabula
One of my favorite lines of Bob Dylan is in his “You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go” from Blood on the Tracks (1975). Never mind the Dylan-style defeatism of outlining a perfect partner, an effortlessly satisfying relationship to…
Posted in WWWS
What does “happily ever after” mean?
“And they lived happily ever after.” Most languages, I assume, have a similar, codified ending for the stories we call fairy tales. Pressed for what the expression “really means,” I suppose for most of my life I would have said…
Posted in Just life
Married to a painted porch
When we moved to Knoxville, Tenn. from our apartment outside Naples, Italy, Maurizio and I were charmed by the white picket fence and white wooden porch of our new house. The reality of upkeep dawned soon enough. Surprise! Mildew creeps…
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Victims
In researching garment worker conditions in 1911 for my next novel, I came upon a list of the victims of the March 25, 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire in New York City and can’t get it out of my head.…
Posted in WWWS
Factoids learned whilst writing
Now on the tenth chapter, maybe 60% through the plot of my next historical novel, due at HarperCollins in early November (very early, Nov.1), I discover that writing on a deadline is 1) very hard on the back; and 2)…
Posted in WWWS
Panna cotta, pure & simple
Some of the seeming classics of Italian post-dinner cuisine — tiramisu’, torta caprese, limoncello, and panna cotta (lit. “cooked cream”) are in fact rather late, post 1980’s entries on the popular culinary scene. Renaissance folks didn’t eat them. Little Sofia…
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