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A Publication
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| Volume 81· Number
1 - Summer 2003 |
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Novel Dickinsonia
Comic Turn Think an Italian-Irish American Bridget Jones without the weight problem but with similar relationship insecurities, and you’ll have Diana Campanella, the heroine of Christina Bartolomeo ’83’s first novel. Diana’s ethnic heritage, her large, colorful family and her penchant for vintage frocks are traits shared—not with Bridget—but with Bartolomeo. There is a bit of Bartolomeo in the heroine of her other published novel as well, Nicky Malone in The Side of the Angels. “She’s my alter ego—the feisty person I would like to be,” notes Bartolomeo. “Sometimes you can take the ways you wish you had behaved and put them into a character.” What Nicky does have in common with Bartolomeo is her union work. Before quitting to write novels full time the novelist wrote and designed campaign literature, fliers and brochures for a nurses’ union. Cupid and Diana and The Side of the Angels are prime examples of what her creator calls romantic comedy or “chick lit.” Says Bartolomeo, “I have few male readers. I love talking to women.” And women love hearing what she has to say. Her debut novel earned inclusion on The New York Times’ Notable Books of the Year List in 1998 and was transformed into the Hallmark Hall of Fame movie, Cupid and Cate, starring Peter Gallagher and Mary-Louise Parker, two years later. Success came as quite a shock to Bartolomeo, a fine-arts major who got the writing jones here while serving for two years as arts and features editor for The Dickinsonian. Since graduation she’d been taking adult-education courses in creative writing in Bethesda, Md., and working in communications in Washington, D.C. At 33, she stopped taking courses, at 35 she wrote Cupid and Diana, published it at 37, and now, at age 42, with a second novel on the bookstore shelves and a third to debut next spring, she muses, “I can’t believe people pay me to do this. I’m so thankful. I always assumed I would work in an office 9 to 5 all week. I still don’t count on this. Publishing three novels is good, but it’s not security. It’s a pretty rough-and-tumble business.” Besides leaving her job, she left D.C. for New England, signaling a shift in the setting of her novels. The new one, Snowed In, is set in Portland, Maine, where the heroine has moved for her husband’s job. There are some autobiographical elements. “I wanted to show what it’s like when a person who is quite self-contained and is not a risk-taker goes to a new place and everything falls apart. I’ve never been married, and as far as I know I’ve never been cheated on [like the heroine is], but when I spent a year in Portland I felt adrift.” While putting the finishing touches on Snowed In, which will be published by St. Martin’s Press in fall ’04, Bartolomeo is musing over her next novel, a romantic comedy about sisters. Fast-paced with snappy dialogue, Bartolomeo’s novels are a quick read. Dialogue, in fact, is her favorite element to write. “I’m kind of nosy. I like eavesdropping on buses. Listening to people talk fascinates me. Dialogue must, to a certain extent, be crafted. It has to be articulate but sound like conversation in real life.” Bartolomeo also writes with a fine eye for detail, a skill she attributes to her art background at Dickinson. “Professors Dennis Akin, Susan and Walter Nichols were all wonderful teachers. The classic art training I got has really helped me since. It teaches you to see, which is a really helpful skill for a writer. A background in studio art teaches you to always be using your eyes and observing. Your mind becomes more like a camera.” As for Bartolomeo’s own reading, she favors classic British detective fiction—Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers. “I like them because plots are one of my hardest challenges. Their books are about character, but they need a strong plot to hang it on. And the conversation is witty. I find it soothing.” —Sherri Kimmel |
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