Novelist Returns to the Hoboken of the Past

Correction apended.

For most Hoboken residents today, it's hard to remember a time when Hoboken was a tough town with a bare waterfront and empty factory buildings. Author and journalist Jim Fusilli, however, still vividly remembers the Hoboken of the 1970s.

"It was a tough town," Fusilli said recently over a cup of coffee in Manhattan's Tribeca neighborhood where he now lives. "The city was falling apart, the piers were shutting down."

Last week Fusilli published Narrows Gate, his sixth novel, which is set in a fictionalized World War II era version of Hoboken.

Fusilli will return to the Hoboken of the present on Dec. 8 to make is only New Jersey appearance to talk about the book. He will be speaking at the Elks Club at 7 p.m. on that day.

The book evolves around protagonists Leo Bell and Sal Benno, two close friends who live in Narrows Gate. While Sal loves living there, Fusilli said, Leo can't wait to leave. A third character that has a prominent place in the book, Bebe Marsala, may remember some of Frank Sinatra, Fusilli said.

Narrows Gate is also Fusilli's first novel aimed at a mainstream audience and his first published novel since 2005. And while the link between this book and The Godfather or The Sopranos can easily be made, Fusilli said his book is different.

"I haven't watched five seconds of The Sopranos," Fusilli said. "I knew guys like that growing up and wanted nothing to do with them."

Joe Pantoliano, Hoboken native and Sopranos actor, is the narrator of the Narrows Gate audio book edition. And although Pantoliano and Fusilli are part of the same generation, the two had never met before working on this project.

In an interview on the website The Big Thrill, Fusilli said that "when we were recording the promotional material for Narrows Gate, Joe Pantoliano turned to me and said, 'You’re Leo Bell, aren’t you?'"

Fusilli admitted that the book's protagonists are partially based on himself.

"I felt out of place," Fusilli said about living in Hoboken in the 70s. "The pull of New York was great."

Inspired by personal idol Frank Sinatra, Fusilli moved to New York City in 1980, two years before getting married, at age 27. And although he enjoyed his group of friends and Hoboken as a whole—as a High School student at St. Joseph's in West New York he'd hurry back to Hoboken after school every day to hang out with his friends—he said he never truly felt at home.

After moving to the city, Fusilli started working for several PR firms before landing a job in corporate relations at Dow Jones, he said. When the Wall Street Journal—owned by Dow Jones—opened a leisure and arts page, Fusilli was asked to write a music column, which he still writes to this day, 28 years later. Before moving to New York, Fusilli worked at the Jersey Journal where he also wrote a music column, he said.

Fusilli still returns to Hoboken every now and then, for a dinner at Zylo in the W Hotel or a show at Maxwell's. But, he said, he still sees the old Hoboken.

"Walking in Hoboken," Fusilli said, "I see what used to be there."

And although old Hoboken is exactly where Narrows Gate will take you, the past is not where Fusilli prefers to spend his time. "I loathe nostalgia," he said. "I'm not interested in the past ... I think it's important to be forward looking."

Fusilli said he hopes that Narrows Gate, which is available on Amazon, will be of interest to a large audience. The book includes topics such as the growth of the mob in the United States and old Hollywood and the formation of the CIA, Fusilli said.

Fusilli dedicated the book to his parents. Fusilli is the son of an Italian father and an Irish mother—an unconventional match in those days—who both died at a young age. His parents met at Demarest, he said, and lived their entire lives in Hoboken.

For Narrows Gate Fusilli said he did a lot of research and incorporated many parts of old Hoboken. Sal Benno's speech pattern, for example, resembles how Fusilli and his friends used to talk to each other. Hobokenites will also recognize the rythm of language and the protagonists' attitudes, Fusilli said.

Recently Fusilli said he has been reconnecting with some of his old friends and classmates through Facebook groups.

"I've really enjoyed being on Facebook and re-connecting (with people)," Fusilli said. "They're still happy and they loved their childhoods."

An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated the era in which Narrows Gate is set.