The Queen Of The Big Time (2005) - Plot & Excerpts
In the late 1800s, the residents of a small village in the Bari region of Italy, on the shores of the Adriatic Sea, made a mass migration to the promised land of America. They settled in Roseto, Pennsylvania, and re-created their former lives in their new home–down to the very last detail of who lived next door to whom. The village’s annual celebration of Our Lady of Mount Carmel–or “the Big Time,” as the occasion is called by the young women who compete to be the pageant’s Queen–is the centerpiece of Roseto’s colorful old-world tradition.The industrious Castellucas farm the land outside Roseto. Nella, the middle daughter of five, aspires to a genteel life “in town,” far from the rigors of farm life, which have taken a toll on her mother and forced her father to take extra work in the slate quarries to make ends meet. But Nella’s dreams of making her own fortune shift when she meets Renato Lanzara, the son of a prominent Roseto family. Renato is a worldly, handsome, devil-may-care poet who has a way with words that makes him irresistible. Their friendship ignites into a fiery romance that Nella is certain will lead to marriage. But Nella is not alone in her pursuit: every girl in town seems to want Renato. When he disappears without explanation, Nella is left with a shattered heart. Four years later, Renato’s sudden return to Roseto the night before Nella’s wedding to the steadfast Franco Zollerano leaves her and the Castelluca family shaken. For although Renato has chosen a path very different from Nella’s, they are fated to live and work in Roseto, where the past hangs over them like a brewing storm.(from Goodreads)
The Queen of the Big Time is the Catholic schoolgirl who sells the most tickets for the local parish fundraiser. Nella Castelucca, at 14, embraces this concept fully: If you work hard, you will be rewarded. Born of Italian immigrants, in a small Pennsylvania town of Italian immigrants, Nella wants to go become a teacher. However, when her father is injured, Nella and her older sisters go to work to help the family. Instead of going to high school, Nella takes a job at the local blouse factory and works very hard. She stoutly takes her older sister's place doing the pressing, a much harder task than the one she was assigned. It is hot and dangerous, burns are common. Nella uses her bright mind to learn as much as she can to make the factory safer and more efficient. She is rewarded by becoming the youngest supervisor in the factory.The story embraces Nella's hometown, her friends and family, her loves and her losses, and her successful career in clothing manufacturing. It is a lovingly told tale of a family learning to adjust to the rapid changes going on around them and to their own personal tragedies. It is the life story of a woman constantly questioning her faith, trying to resolve the ancient questions "What is love? Why are we here?" and learning to accept herself and her family for the gloriously flawed and loving people they are.
What do You think about The Queen Of The Big Time (2005)?
What is true love? Would you know it if you saw it? Are you sure? That is the central question of this heartwarming story. Nella Castelluca is the middle of five daughters in an Italian family on a farm on the outskirts of a Pennsylvania mining town made up of Italian immigrants. She is very smart, but her family is so poor they can't afford the trolley fare to send her to the high school in town. She falls in love with the dashing Renato, while the steady and determined Franco falls in love with her. The story follows the ups and downs of Nella and her family, finally forcing her to look and see what it is in life that she truly loves and what love has meant to her. It's impossible not to like these characters, although Nella is perhaps the least sympathetic of all of them. It is a lot easier to see her faults than our own. Maybe that was Trigiani's point.
—Chris
Another good story about an immigrant Italian family in the early 1900s making it in America. The story follows Nella Castelluca from when she is 15 and hopes to be able to continue her schooling and become a teacher through the ups and downs of her life. Born and raised on a farm in Pennsylvania, she must quit school and go to work in the blouse factory to help her family. Her work ethic, common sense, and habit of saying what she thinks gets her promoted and successful. Her family ties remain strong. No one in the story is without problems or faults but everyone has a strong sense of duty and right. Trigaiani gets her inspiration from the history of her own family and draws a good portrait of the immigrant American family.
—Marty
I enjoyed this slice of a small town American Italian life in Pennsylvania during and after the depression. Trigiani has an engaging storytelling style and I liked the voice of her main character, no-nonsense farm girl Nella Castelluca who eked out a living on her family farm during the Depression, went to work in a shirt mill when she was 16, became forewoman shortly thereafter, and stayed in the same Italian-based town of Roseto all her life. Unlike most books about women, she was more successful in her career than in her romantic life. Left almost at the alter at an early age by an older, more upper class man, she is pursued and eventually won by a man of her class who is eminently more suited, a fact he recognizes, and she recognizes...sometimes. I love the way Trigiani has Nella age from impulsive, judgmental girl to a rational, clear-minded woman who deeply cares about her family, even if she doesn't always show it. Very enjoyable read.
—April
