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Arts & Entertainment

Author Enjoys Success of New Novel About Hoboken

Jim Fusilli spoke about his novel, Narrows Gate, at the Elks Lodge on Thursday.

Author and Hoboken native Jim Fusilli returned to his hometown on Thursday night to discuss the publishing of his new novel, Narrows Gate, a crime drama set in the Mile Square of the 1940s.

Roughly 25 people, including many longtime Hobokenites and friends of Fusilli, attended the talk at the Elks Lodge.

Fusilli has been writing for the Wall Street Journal for almost thirty years, including currently serving as its music critic, and has previously published five novels. He said he drifted towards writing Narrows Gate after wanting to surpass what he considered to be the limited success of his earlier novels.

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“I was trying to do something sophisticated with broad appeal,” he said on Thursday, during his only New Jersey visit on his book tour.

He said he had been experimenting with writing short scenes around the same time he had been seriously contemplating his life growing up in Hoboken. Fusilli was born in the city in 1953 to an Italian father and an Irish mother.

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“I thought, let me see if I can set a story in Hoboken, to capture the spirit of Hoboken,” he said.

Fusilli said the book focuses on the themes of ethnic identity, how people can have a sentimental attachment to place, and about how they find their roles within society.

The novel takes place during the generation of his parents, when Hoboken was considered a tough town. The story follows characters such as Sal Benno, a street smart youth who becomes involved with organized crime, and “Bebe” Marsala, a singer who also gets entangled with the mob. The fictional Marsala was inspired by Hoboken's most famous native son, Frank Sinatra.

Fusilli said his characters, though fictional, reflect the people he grew up with.

“The characters just sound like Hoboken people to me,” he said. “It didn't take skill to write that. I just remembered people talking.”

Fusilli said he slightly altered many street and other proper names, but that essentially his fictionalized Hoboken follows the same layout as the real one. The name Narrows Gate takes the place of Hoboken. Fusilli said that incorporating the word gate implies somewhere that grants people access, but can also keep them locked in place.

Fusilli said he spent over three years producing the book, including writing a first draft that took 18 months. He said he sticks to a routine and writes daily.

Narrows Gate was originally released in audio form through the website Audible, a division of Amazon. Fusilli said that his was the first original manuscript that Audible had ever purchased.

Hoboken native and award winning actor Joe Pantoliano voiced the dialogue for the audio version (another actor narrated). Fusilli said that prior to working together on the book he and Pantoliano had never actually met, despite being the same age and growing up a few blocks apart.

Based on the success of the audio version, Amazon then offered to publish a hard copy, which was released last month.

Fusilli said that just on Monday of this week Narrows Gate sold over 5,900 copies. He said that none of his previous novels had ever sold that many altogether.

With his new book finding that broad appeal he had been seeking, Fusilli said he was pleased with the final result of the writing process.

“I got the book I set out to do,” he said.

Fusilli, who now lives in New York, is currently touring to promote Narrows Gate, having recently returned from California. He will continue writing for the Wall Street Journal, and he is working on a new novel.

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