Debut novel set in a textile mill’s shadow
DEBUT NOVEL IS BASED ON FAMILY STORIES ABOUT FALL RIVER, MASS.
“I’ ma big believer in the idea that it’s not write what you know, it’s know what you write,” says Jotham Burrello, 51, of Ashford.
However, Burrello, a writing teacher at Central Connecticut State University, implemented both concepts when crafting his first novel, “Spindle City,” which comes out July 21. The book, set in Fall River, Mass., is based in large part on his mother’s tales of growing up in the industrial town, in the shadow of a textile mill.
In New England, Burrello says, “anywhere there’s a river, there’s a hulking mill that used to produce textiles.”
But Burrello also did copious research on the town, and those like it. He learned about what these communities were like in the early 1900s. He learned more about the power dynamics between those who owned the mills — usually rich, white men — and those who worked in them — usually immigrants.
His process of writing and researching the novel was so thorough, Burrello says, that it took a bit longer than expected.
“I have a friend who says all books have their own gestation period you can’t rush them,” says Burrello, also director of the Connecticut Literary Festival. “I think this book is older than one of my kids, and he’s 9.”
But now his book baby is being released into the world, and Burrello is eager to know what people think of it.
“Spindle City” begins in 1911, during the Cotton Centennial — a real life event, at which President William Howard Taft appears, just as many characters are facing crisis points. At the center of the story is the Bartlett family, headed by Joseph Bartlett, who owns a local mill, and carries a dark secret about his rise to power.
Multiple other characters drift in and out, including Joseph’s two sons, Will and Hollister, and Joao Rose, a Portuguese immigrant with deep ties to the Bartletts.
Burrello says he grew up hearing stories from his relatives about the textile mills — including one about a relative who died in an accident at one of the mills — that helped form the spine of the novel. “From a fiction writer’s viewpoint, a town like Fall River is rife with conflict,” he says.
He’s hoping that readers will respond to that conflict and find it as engrossing as he does. But, as a first- time novelist, Burrello admits to some jitters. He’s edited books before, but he’s never released his own novel into the world.
“I hope people connect with some of the characters,” he says. “I think, as a writer, ( your goals are) entertainment and clarity and then way down on the list you want to inform.”
It’s also not lost on Burrello that he’s releasing his book in an unusual time, when the COVID- 19 pandemic has made the usual promotional tools — such as bookstore visits and signings — difficult, if not impossible. He’s hoping that a planned Aug. 6 appearance at Bank Square Books in Mystic will move forward, or move online if an inperson appearance isn’t possible.
Burrello also is appearing on a virtual panel through the Literary Festival on Aug. 20.
He understands people have other things on their minds right now, but he is hoping they can make time for the book to which he feels such a close personal connection.
“It’s tough to stop people and say ‘ Oh by the way I’m doing this thing. I know there’s a lot going on, but you should also think about my book,’ ” Burrello says.