Novel sews up involving romance in 1950s Greenwich Village

Sunday, August 10, 2003

By Rebecca Sodergren

Readers who came to love the homespun characters in Adriana Trigiani's "Big Stone Gap" trilogy, which takes place in Appalachia -- and a section of Italy that's surprisingly reminiscent of Appalachia -- will be surprised at the turn Trigiani has taken in her new novel.

Suddenly, she's writing about New York City -- Greenwich Village in the 1950s and a close-knit Italian community.

	"Lucia, Lucia" By Adriana Trigiani Random House ($24.95)

It may be more like Appalachia than the New York City we think of now -- more like a neighborhood and less gritty than 2000s Manhattan.

Maybe a little too cheery and devoid of grit, but somehow Trigiani pulls it off, creating a riveting story, a believable protagonist and a sneaky character who makes up for the lack of unpleasantness in the physical surroundings.

In each case, Appalachia and Italy and New York City, Trigiani is writing about what she knows. She grew up in Virginia in a large Italian family (judging from the acknowledgments in her books) and now lives in Manhattan.

She's especially at home portraying life in a big, expressive Italian family. She describes it as feeling as if you're all one big person: No one can act independently of anyone else. But we don't get the impression that that's always a hemmed-in feeling; sometimes it's a protected one.

Lucia Sartori is living in her parents' home and working for B. Altman's Department Store as an apprentice designer. Much of the plot centers on this job she loves -- a part of the fashion world that has now, as it were, gone out of fashion -- custom-made dresses for individual clients.

She loves her job so much, in fact, that she recoils when her future mother-in-law insists she give it up to become a housewife after marrying. In the 1950s, that's what she was supposed to want, and although this novel seems to be imposing 21st-century sensibilities on the 1950s, Trigiani pulls it off.

Not every woman in any era is cut out for housewifery, and Trigiani manages to help readers understand Lucia's confusion.

When a handsome, wealthy man enters Lucia's world, offering her the glitz she's only admired from afar, she suddenly seems to know just what she wants, only to have everything turned on its head.

With her confusion and blind spots, Lucia is a believable young woman.

Her father, an Old World Italian grocery owner, is another believable character who sees his daughter's blind spots and knows what should make her happy.

Fans of contemporary fiction will be reminded, not so much in style but in storyline, of Jane Smiley's latest novel, "Good Faith." Both novels show obvious research into a particular profession (Smiley's, real estate; Trigiani's, fashion), and both are populated with lovable but sheltered characters and a more worldly character who ends up upsetting the community.

The setting doesn't matter. Trigiani can spin a good tale that could happen anywhere.

Rebecca Sodergren is a freelance writer and former Post-Gazette staff member.

E-mail this story   Print this story