Couple bring shark, characters vividly to life in novel
Dennis and Jenny D’Alessandro celebrate their 80s (and near 80s) with jointly written ‘Chantry Island’
Dunnn dunnn, dunn dunnn, dunnn dunnn — that’s how the internet says to spell out that memorable cello ostinato that we now can’t help but associate with sharks, thanks to Mr. Spielberg and John Williams.
You might hear it in your head, though not right away, when you’re reading “Chantry Island,” a novel — their first — by husband/wife team Dennis and Jenny D’Alessandro; he’s 80, she’s 79.
The shark — yes, a great white — doesn’t come into it until several characters and relationships have been established and a few chapters have elapsed. Oh, but when she does — yes, the shark is a she and has birthed six “pups” just before her grand entrance — when the great white first appears, as a dorsal fin breaking the surface of the water, she changes everything and is always with us, even when she’s not on stage, so to speak.
The novel, which just came out, grew from a seed planted almost 50 years ago when Dennis and Jenny went to the cinema and saw ... guess what.
“I love ‘Jaws,’” Dennis says, “but as I watched I thought, ‘I’d do this differently.’”
That idea throbbed, with varying degrees of intensity over the decades, until he found himself flicking through the channels in 2019 and happened upon “Jaws.”
“The next day I made the decision.” He was going to finally write this thing. He and Jenny were.
If “Jaws” was somewhat of a retelling of Moby Dick, with less philosophizing and symbolism, then Dennis and Jenny would in turn retell “Jaws,” with more complex characterization and nuanced relationships, more thematic richness and ambitious ideas, perhaps bringing it back closer to “Moby Dick” ... but with women.
The book is written as a kind of trilogy with three principal stories connected by the shark and by some overlapping characters.
Dennis and Jenny describe it as an adult novel, mature in its content and style, meaning that “Chantry Island” deals frankly with menwomen issues, sexuality and the pressures of life, morality and larger social and even political dynamics. It is erotic in places but ultimately it is rooted in action, drama and conflict.
There are shark attacks, an affair, a near rape, duplicity and misunderstanding but also love and tenderness.
And there is, in the book, everything you wanted to know about sharks, the way there is about whales in “Moby Dick,” thoroughly researched and presented in interesting ways, for instance over the course of an inquest. The shark takes on an almost mythical quality. “Chantry Island” is also informed by copious research, applied judiciously, into lighthouses, sailing, glaciation, geology and the psyche of the American South.
If the book took near 50 years incubating, the reason is Dennis did not want to skimp on the research that he knew would be required to do the idea justice.
For one thing, he had a very busy career in education, was a football coach with several championships under his belt and during the 1970s he set up five departments as arts chair — with all the ordering and requisitioning that entailed — at the then newly minted St. Jean de Brebeuf Catholic Secondary School.
He never had enough time but neither did he let go of the dream of writing it.
In the meantime Dennis has many other pursuits — growing dahlias, fishing, and writing essays on everything from honeybees and why we need more unions, honeybees and racism/sexism in sport to his favourite subject and overarching passion, the environment.
Jenny, for her part, does oil painting, zumba, plays piano and produces hundreds of outfits (she is an expert sewer, crocheter and embroiderer) for disadvantaged children.
Once they started, Dennis and Jenny spent hundreds of hours on the book, says Jenny — not just on the research. mapping out the story and the characters and putting down the words and editing them but figuring out how to publish it.
The novel is self-published through Tellwell. For more, dennisjenny@bell.net