In her debut novel, Becoming Mariella, Janet Constantino merged her experience as a psychotherapist with her upbringing in a Sicilian American family to explore a woman’s quest to break free from traditional roles and family traditions to find her own path in life. Mariella, the character in her novel, Becoming Mariella, finds herself on a desperate journey to find her personal freedom, which takes her from Sicily to San Francisco. Kirkus Reviews praised, “Readers will easily relate to this enjoyable and honest depiction of the conflicting desires and expectations faced by many people in their 20s.”
Becoming Mariella: A Novel
Author: Janet Constantino
For fans of Elena Ferrante’s The Lying Life of Adults and Jean Kwok’s Girl in Translation comes a contemporary coming-of-age tale about a young Italian immigrant’s desperate journey to find her personal freedom.
It’s unprecedented, even in the twenty-first century, for a young Sicilian woman to defy the centuries-old mandate, “Family is everything!”—but twenty-two-year-old Mariella Russo is desperate to escape Sicily. She’s being relentlessly coerced into an engagement with her wealthy college sweetheart—a young man from a prominent, powerful family—by her envious and erratic mother, who hopes the match will increase her own ignominious social status. Suddenly, Mariella’s lifelong home has become a claustrophobic island. In a bid for independence and an attempt to escape entrapment, she flees to San Francisco.
But Mariella’s bête noire—entrapment—follows her to San Francisco, where everyone wants more from her than she wants to give. Her American roommate, Leslie, turns out to be a gay man rather than the woman she imagined; her employer/lover is pressuring her to live with him; and her neurotic mother is haunting her, wreaking havoc and embarrassment. An urgent return trip to Sicily puts Mariella to the ultimate challenge: will she submit to tradition, or choose a life she wants for herself?
Author Interview
At what point did you decide to be an author, and what was your path to publication?
Since my late teens, early 20’s I have wanted to be an author, and have file drawers of short stories, poems, a screenplay, a partial memoir, and two previous, unfinished novels. My path was circuitous because I became a licensed psychotherapist in 1983, so my writing was fit in between work. It wasn’t until later, when I went for a second graduate degree, an MFA in Creative Writing, that I really settled down and wrote full time. Becoming Mariella received agent interest and bites, and finally I applied to and was accepted by SheWrites, which has been lovely to work with.
What do you do when a new idea jumps out at you while you’re still working on writing project? Do you chase the squirrel (aka “UP syndrome”), or do you finish your current project first?
I do my best to take notes on a new idea, but I finish my current project before I start a new one. Otherwise, my brain and writing become too scattered, and I lose track.
What have you found to be most challenging about writing your debut novel?
Accepting editing from trusted sources, re-writing, re-working (many times) the parts I had thought were just right, which invariably led to a broader re-writing and giving up some of the bits I was particularly attached to, segments that simply didn’t work in the context of the story. I had to “…kill (some of) my darlings.”
Have you been able to incorporate your previous experience in your professional life/education in your writing?
Yes. I tend to write character from a psychological perspective, an experiential perspective, without spelling it out directly or analyzing. Or diagnosing. And so, I draw from my many years as a psychotherapist.
Describe your novel in 10 words or less for people just learning about it.
A young Sicilian woman defies tradition, leaving home to make her way.
Is there anything you would like people to take away from your book?
Becoming Mariella is a tribute to the women of my family, and to anyone who has sought a life defined by choice and autonomy. I hope Mariella inspires the possibility of growing and discovering more about oneself and learning to balance dreams with our roots and the people we love. To achieve a balance between our attachments, and who we are, intrinsically, within ourselves.
Share some advice for aspiring authors. What advice would you give to your younger self?
It’s perhaps a cliche, but if you love writing, don’t give up, even if your first efforts don’t turn out the way you’d like, or you get rejected over and over again. Find the place inside where you believe in yourself. You can get better with practice, and above all, if you’re writing fiction let your characters speak and act true to themselves, not forcing them to speak and act the way you want them to.
The main advice I would give to my younger self is stay with it.
About the Author
Hailing from a half-Sicilian American family, Janet Constantino has explored various paths in life—from working at Disneyland and dealing cards at Harrah’s Tahoe to dancing competitively in Latin Ballroom and Argentine Tango showcases. As a journalist, she contributed to California Living, the Pacific Sun, and the Point Reyes Light.
Since 1983, Janet has also been a licensed psychotherapist, blending her curiosity about the tension between connection and independence into both her writing and therapeutic work. A practicing Buddhist, she earned an MFA in Creative Writing from Pacific University in 2015. In 2021, she won second place in the M.F.K. Fisher Last House writing contest. Janet lives in Sonoma, California, with her husband of 25 years, their Labradoodle, and tuxedo cat, enjoying time with her grown son and twin granddaughters.
For more information, visit janetconstantino.com
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