Lucia, Lucia by Adriana Trigiani
She hears the downstairs door slam shut and leans out the window to see who’s leaving the building. Lately, she has a little bet with herself about Tony Sartori’s bald spot, which from the fourth floor looks worse by the month. With his ego, she predicts a toupee by Christmas. But it isn’t him.
Dante DeMartino and Lucia Sartori walk down Commerce Street hand in hand, on their way to dinner. When the sidewalk narrows, he puts his hand on the small of her back to guide her. She turns to him and smiles. Another couple, around Kit’s age, comes around the corner. Once they have passed Dante and Lucia, the young woman nudges her boyfriend as if to say, See, that could be us someday. Kit wants to shout out her window, Only if you’re lucky! That’s not just any single girl out on a date, that’s the most beautiful woman in Greenwich Village. And someday I’m going to write a play about her.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
How lucky I am to have been born one of the seven Trigiani kids! I have learned so much from my sisters and brothers, each one a magnificent person, each of whom I would be proud to call my friend if we were not related. Each one has given me a particular gift by their example, and it is a wonderful thing to finally be able to thank them; so, my gratitude to Mary Yolanda for your elegance, Lucia Anna “Pia” for your compassion, Antonia “Toni” for your strength, Michael for your humor and artistry, Carlo for your tenacity, and Francesca for your joy. I will be grateful to you all forever for your loyalty and big hearts.
At Random House, I thank my editor, the brilliant Lee Boudreaux; Todd Doughty, whose professionalism and good nature inspires me; Laura Ford, Anna McDonald, Vicki Wong, Dan Rembert, Beth Thomas, Allison Saltzman, Libby McGuire, Janet Cook, Tom Nevins, Allyson Pearl, Carol Schneider, Tom Perry, Sherry Huber, Ed Brazos, Eileen Becker, Ivan Held, Steve Wallace, Stacy Rockwood-Chen, Maureen O’Neal, Allison Heilborn, Kim Hovey, Allison Dickens, Candice Chaplin, Cindy Murray, and Beth Pearson. Gina Centrello, thank you for your support, energy, and Italian moxie.
To Suzanne Gluck, the best agent on earth and an even better friend, my love and gratitude. More of the same to WMA’s brilliant beauties, Emily Nurkin, Karen Gerwin, Jennifer Rudolph Walsh, Tracy Fisher, Alicia Gordon, and Cara Stein. At ICM, more still to my champion, the great Nancy Josephson, and the fabulous Jill Holwager. In movieland, thank you Lou Pitt, Jim Powers, Todd Steiner, and Michael Pitt.
I don’t know what I would do without the amazing Lorie Stoopack, who works hard and makes it fun; and the astute “Manuscript book club,” Mary Trigiani, Jean Morrissey, and Mary Testa. I would be lost without you.
For their sparkling and vivid memories of Manhattan in 1950, thank you Helen McNeill, Ralph Stampone, and June Lawton. To the librarians of the New York Public Library system, thank you for your guidance. The recipes are from the files of my late friend and beloved grandmother Viola Trigiani. My grandmother Lucia Bonicelli, a craftsman in sewing and design, inspired the fashions throughout the story. To B. Atman expert David Manning, director of media relations for the Graduate Center, City University of New York, thank you for your excellent research. To gorgeous Elena Nachmanoff and Dianne Festa, I am devoted to you and Saul and Stewart for life.
Thank you with heaps of love to: Nancy Bolmeier Fisher, Kate Crowley, Eydie Collins, Elaine Martinelli, Elizabeth Dawson, Tom Dyja, Ruth Pomerance, Pam McCarthy, Nigel Stoneman, Ian Chapman, Suzanne Baboneau, Carmen Elena Carrion, Melissa Weatherhill, Rosanne Cash, Charles Randolph Wright, Bill Persky, Joanna Patton, Larry Sanitsky, Debra McGuire, John Melfi, Father Tony Rodrigues, Grace Naughton, Dee Emmerson, Gina Casella, Sharon Hall, Constance Marks, James Miller, Wendy Luck, Sharon Watroba Burns, Nancy Ringham, John Searles, Helen and Bill Testa, Cynthia Rutledge Olson, Jasmine Guy, Jim Horvath, Craig Fissé, Kate Benton, Jim Doughan, Ann Godoff, Joanne Curley Kerner, Max Westler, Dana and Richard Kirshenbaum, Sister Jean Klene, Daphne and Tim Reid, Caroline Rhea, Kathleen Maccio Holman, Rosemary and Anthony Casciole, Susan and Sam Franzeskos, Jake Morrissey, Beáta and Steven Baker, Eleanor Jones, Brownie and Connie Polly, Aaron Hill and Susan Fales-Hill, Karol Jackowski, Christina Avis Krauss and Sonny Grosso, Susan Paolercio, Greg Cantrell, Rachel and Vito Desario, Mary Murphy, and Matt Williams and Angelina Fiordellisi.
Michael Patrick King, I adore you. If there is an afterlife, I hope I live downstairs from you there too.
To the Trigiani and Stephenson families, our Italian relatives, the Spada, Maj, and Bonicellis, thank you. To Ida Trigiani, the best mother on earth, my love always. To the people of Big Stone Gap, Virginia, my everlasting gratitude. To the great Jim Burns, please keep an eye on us from heaven. To my dear papa, Anthony, I miss you as much as I loved you, which is immeasurable.
And to my husband, Tim Stephenson, who puts up with more agita than ten men, your character and goodness still thrill me. As you lead me by the hand through parenthood, I am glad it is you who chose me. Thank you for our baby girl, who is lucky to have such a splendid papa.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ADRIANA TRIGIANI grew up in Virginia and now lives in New York City with her husband and daughter. She is an award-winning playwright, television writer, and documentary filmmaker. Trigiani is the author of the bestselling novels Big Stone Gap, Big Cherry Holler, and Milk Glass Moon, and has written the screenplay for the movie Big Stone Gap, which she will also direct.
ALSO BY ADRIANA TRIGIANI
Big Stone Gap
Big Cherry Holler
Milk Glass Moon
Lucia, Lucia is a work of fiction. All incidents and dialogue, and all characters with the exception of some well-known historical and public figures, are products of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Where real-life historical figures and public figures appear, the situations, incidents, and dialogues concerning those persons are entirely fictional and are not intended to depict actual events or to change the entirely fictional nature of the work. In all other respects, any resemblance to persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2003 by The Glory of Everything Company
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Random House, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
RANDOM HOUSE and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Trigiani, Adriana.
Lucia, Lucia: a novel / Adriana Trigiani
p. cm.
1. Greenwich Village (New York, N.Y.)—Fiction. 2. Department stores—Employees—Fiction. 3. Italian American families—Fiction. 4. Italian American women—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3570.R459L83 2003
813′.54—dc21 2003046612
Random House website address: www.atrandom.com
eISBN: 978-1-58836-287-2
v3.0
Adriana Trigiani, Lucia, Lucia