When We Were Strangers (31 page)

Q:
Some authors say they end up taking direction from their characters rather than the reverse. As you were writing did any characters or plot lines take on a life of their own?

Entrepreneurial Molly had a way of muscling herself into the plot and making herself indispensible in the same way that she managed more and more of Mrs. Gaveston’s boardinghouse. I really hadn’t imagined anyone like her when I started the Chicago section. Then she appeared, at first just to take away Irma’s house-cleaning income, and then to become Irma’s guide and prod. I think that many of Irma’s sensibilities and values were truly opaque to Molly, but she is a good and loyal friend and essential to Irma’s personal journey. At first I assumed that she would stay in Chicago while Irma went to San Francisco, but Molly thought otherwise and as you see, she came along and is there to the end, the “aunt” to Irma’s child.

Q:
Your characters are all so colorful, each with a story of his or her own. Were any inspired by people you’ve met or known?

There is an Italian expression, “boh,” which translates to something like “darned if I know.” Pieces of people come flying by, stick together with some mysterious glue, and a character takes shape. I wish that I understood the process better, but I can detect some sources for a few character qualities. Back to Molly, I think her calendars and constant writing, erasing, and refiguring in little squares remind me of my mother, who planned everything, even designed houses on tiny notepads, as if paper were the rarest of commodities. The Missus was a bit like my first boss, a horrid woman who managed a rare books collection. I had fantasies of infecting it with insects that ate old medical texts. Mostly, though, some detail of research would spark an image, or from the name itself a face would bloom. I’d write a paragraph or so about the person and then in subsequent passes over a passage or chapter, more and more qualities of that character would emerge, rather like a developing photograph. For example, I knew from the first that Madame Hélène, while generous and honest (unlike the Missus), was also emotionally repressed. But why? I saw her coming from Alsace, which was a coal-mining area in the nineteenth century. Thinking of life in the old mining towns near where I live now, in east Tennessee, I imagined her having seen far too many babies and young children die to want a family herself or even make one more baptismal gown that might become a shroud.

Q:
Irma’s female relatives saved and hid what would have been a small fortune for them—never touching it, even during years of hunger. Did you draw inspiration for these women, and the many others Irma meets along the way, from anyone in your own life?

My great-grandmother came to Iowa from Germany when she was sixteen to marry her brother’s friend (just as Irma tells the immigration officer she is doing). She told us of coming alone by train from New York to Iowa, not speaking a word of English. A boy at a train station sold bananas and found it hilarious to watch foreigners try to eat the skin, so that’s the origin of Irma’s banana adventure. Her brother’s friend was, by all accounts, a bitter, miserly man, but my great-grandmother learned English and found joy in farming and in her children. My grandfather was her favorite, but when he wanted to buy a small farm in Texas, she gave him money that she had somehow saved and secretly hidden from her husband. Like Zia Carmela sending Irma to America, it must have been so painful to watch him go.

Q:
On a separate note, we’ve heard that you and your husband make a mean limoncello, any helpful hints for any of us would-be liqueur makers?

Well, since our utter fantasy is to fund a villa near my husband’s city of Ancona on the Adriatic through limoncello production, I can only say that our recipe calls on the magic of seven (seven lemons, etc.) and requires large, unsprayed green lemons and straight grain alcohol. On vacation in the Caribbean, we once found the big green lemons and substituted strong rum. That was
not
a breakthrough limoncello. Stick with the straight stuff.

D
ISCUSSION
Q
UESTIONS

1. Irma’s practical skills and world knowledge seem so limited, even compared to those of her brother, Carlo. What abilities and traits help her navigate the difficult passages from Opi to Naples and then west?

2. Irma’s mother devoutly believes that “If you leave Opi, you will die with strangers.” How does this assertion shape Irma’s experience and how does she ultimately refine it in a way that allows her to move forward in her journey? How does this family assertion compare to others you may have encountered?

3. Opi, real and remembered, is a powerful force for Irma’s self-image and worldview. How does her conception of Opi change through the novel?

4. Unlike many fictional heroines, Irma has little interest in a romantic union. Why not, and what must change for her to have a satisfying intimate relationship?

5. At various times in her journey, Irma makes choices that she herself feels are at odds with the Irma Vitale that she “really is.” Is she accurate in this assessment?

6. Irma Vitale is surrounded by immigrants as she makes her passage west. What various ways of relating to the “Old Country” are represented by these other immigrants, her “fellow strangers”?

7. Sofia gives Irma the option to leave Jake and Daisy’s flat. Yet Irma stays. How does this choice reflect her changing sense of self since first encountering Jake?

8. Irma’s profession evolves from needleworker to dressmaker and finally, surgeon. What inner changes parallel this evolution?

9. Today, as in Irma’s time, many people live far from their birthplace for a variety of reasons. What pressures, challenges and supports seem universal about her experience?

About the Author

PAMELA SCHOENEWALDT
lived for ten years in a small town outside Naples, Italy. Her short stories have appeared in literary magazines in England, France, Italy, and the United States. She taught writing for the University of Maryland–European Division and the University of Tennessee, and now lives in Knoxville, Tennessee, with her husband, Maurizio Conti, a medical physicist, and their dog, Jesse, a philosopher.

Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins author.

Copyright