Juliet (69 page)

W
HILE
JULIET
IS A WORK OF FICTION
, it is steeped in historical fact. The earliest version of
Romeo and Juliet
was indeed set in Siena, and once you start digging into local history, you begin to understand why the story originated precisely where it did.

Perhaps more than any other Tuscan city, Siena was torn by fierce family feuds all through the Middle Ages, and the Tolomeis and the Salimbenis were famously pitted against each other in a manner that very much resembles the bloody rivalry between the Capulets and the Montagues in Shakespeare’s play.

That said, I have taken a few liberties in portraying Messer Salimbeni as an evil wife-beater, and I am not sure Dr. Antonio Tasso at Monte dei Paschi di Siena—who was kind enough to show my mother around Palazzo Salimbeni and tell her about its remarkable history—would appreciate the idea of a torture chamber in the basement of his venerable institution.

Nor will my friends Gian Paolo Ricchi, Dario Colombo, Alex Baldi, Patrizio Pugliese, and Cristian Cipo Riccardi be happy that I made the ancient Palio such a violent affair, but since we know so very little about the medieval version of the race, I hope they will give me the benefit of the doubt.

I also hope Saint Catherine of Siena will forgive me for involving her in the legend of Monna Mina and the curse on the wall, as well as in the story of Comandante Marescotti and the boy Romanino, where she appears as a baby in the Benincasa household. Both scenarios are my invention, and yet I have tried to remain faithful to the spirit of Saint
Catherine’s early life in Siena, her remarkable personality, and the miracles attributed to her.

Archaeologist Antonella Rossi Pugliese was kind enough to take me on a walking tour of Siena’s most ancient parts, and it was she who inspired me to delve into the mysteries of the Siena underground, such as the Bottini caves, the lost cathedral crypt, and the remnants of the bubonic plague of 1348. However, it was my mother who discovered Santa Caterina’s room in the old hospital, Santa Maria della Scala, and who—on the same occasion—managed to convince a kind custodian to show her the entrance to a medieval plague pit.

The less macabre parts of my mother’s research on Sienese history were primarily made possible by the Biblioteca Comunale degli Intronati, Archivio dello Stato, and Libreria Ancilli—which, by the way, is where Julie goes to have the index card that was hidden in her mother’s box deciphered—but we are also grateful for the illuminating insights of Professor Paolo Nardi; Padre Alfred White, OP; and John W. Peck, SJ, as well as the literary legacy of the late Johannes Jørgensen, a Danish poet and journalist whose biography of Saint Catherine offers a spellbinding insight into Siena in the fourteenth century. Furthermore, the Museo della Contrada della Civetta and the Siena municipal police have been tremendously helpful, the latter primarily for not arresting my mother during her many clandestine investigations into bank security systems and the like.

While on the issue of suspicious activities, I hasten to apologize to Direttor Rosi at Hotel Chiusarelli for staging a break-in at his beautiful establishment. As far as I know, there has never been a breach of security at the hotel, nor would the director and his staff ever interfere with the movements of their guests or remove personal belongings from their rooms.

I also need to emphasize that the artist Maestro Lippi—who is a real person—is not quite as eccentric as I have laid him out to be. Nor does he have a messy workshop in downtown Siena, but rather a breathtaking atelier in an old Tolomei castle in the countryside. I hope the Maestro will forgive me these artistic liberties.

Two friends from Siena have been particularly helpful and generous with their local knowledge: Avv. Alessio Piscini has been an inexhaustible resource of everything related to Contrada dell’Aquila and the Palio tradition, and author Simone Berni has patiently suffered a barrage of questions
regarding Italian usage and Sienese logistics. I owe it to them both to say that, if any factual errors managed to sneak into the book, they are my own fault, not theirs.

I would also like to extend my very special thanks to the following people outside Siena: My friend and fellow freedom-fighter from the Institute for Humane Studies, Elisabeth McCaffrey, and my book-club sisters, Jo Austin, Maureen Fontaine, Dara Jane Loomis, Mia Pascale, Tamie Salter, Monica Stinson, and Alma Valevicius, who kindly critiqued an early draft.

Two people have been key in helping me turn story into book: My agent, Dan Lazar, whose enthusiasm, diligence, and savvy made it all possible, and my editor, Susanna Porter, whose keen eyes and expert touch helped to trim and tighten the book without getting me all tangled up. It has been an honor and a privilege to work with them both.

Needless to say, I am deeply grateful for the tremendous help and encouragement from all the wonderful people at Writers House and Random House, two households (dare I say) both alike in dignity. Maja Nikolic, Stephen Barr, Jillian Quint, Kim Hovey, Vincent La Scala, Lisa Barnes, Theresa Zoro, and Libby McGuire in particular have been instrumental in realizing this book. And a thank-you also to Iris Tupholme at HarperCollins Canada for her constructive advice about the work.

And finally, I owe so much more than thanks to my husband, Jonathan Fortier, without whose love, support, and humor I could never have written this book, and without whom I would still be asleep, not even knowing it.

I have dedicated
Juliet
to my amazing mother, Birgit Malling Eriksen, whose generosity and devotion are boundless, and who spent almost as much time doing research for the story as I spent writing it. I hope the book is everything she prayed it would be.

…

Reading Group Questions and Discussion Topics for
Juliet

1. In Anne Fortier’s novel
   Juliet
   , Shakespeare’s
   Romeo and Juliet
   casts a long shadow over the lives of the main characters, past and present. Looking at the “original” story of Romeo and Giulietta set in 1340, consider in what ways Fortier uses Shakespeare’s great tragedy as a model for her own work, and in what ways she departs from it.
   

2. Discuss the ways in which the bonds of sisterhood—for good and for ill—are central to the novel. Why do you think Fortier introduces this element into her story?
   

3. Although there are surprising revelations about all the characters in the novel, perhaps the most shocking has to do with Umberto, Aunt Rose’s faithful butler. Did you find Umberto to be a sympathetic character? Why or why not?
   

4. Very early in the novel, we are introduced to Julie’s recurring dream—a dream that seems to foretell her own fate and to recapitulate the fate of Romeo and Guilietta centuries earlier. Is there a rational explanation for this dream, or is it a supernatural occurrence? And what about the other seemingly supernatural events or objects in the novel, such as the divine intervention of the Virgin Mary on Giulietta’s wedding night with Messer Salimbeni, or the destructive powers of Romeo’s signet ring; can these events be explained rationally?
   

5. How does the relationship of Janice and Julie evolve over the course of the novel? What are the major turning points? Did you find these changes believable? Why or why not?
   

6. Why does Friar Lorenzo champion the young lovers, risking his life on their behalf? Do you think he is justified in placing a curse on both the Tolomei and the Salimbeni houses?
   

7. Juliet
   is in many ways a novel about families and the secrets and obligations that hold them together … and sometimes force them apart. Consider the bonds of family, love and duty in the three families we meet in the 1340 storyline, beginning with the relationship between fathers and their children. In what ways are they different? How are they the same? And what about the present-day narrative … has anything changed?
   

8. Maestro Lippi occupies the studio of Maestro Ambrogio, and, like Ambrogio, he, too, has a dog named Dante. Is the author trying to suggest that Lippi is some kind of reincarnation of Ambrogio? What is the relationship between these two characters, separated by centuries?
   

9. What about Julie and Alessandro: are they reincarnations of Giulietta and Romeo, forced to repeat the actions of their ancestors by the terms of an ancient curse, or by some genetic inheritance? In what ways do the lives of the two sets of characters parallel or echo each other? In what ways are they different?
   

10. Compare the ways that the characters from 1340 think and act to the ways the present-day characters think and act. Are they more or less impulsive? More or less rational? Does love mean the same thing to them? How, for example, is the love that develops between Julie and Alessandro different from that of Romeo and Giulietta? What accounts for these differences?
    

11. Compare the banter between Romeo and Giulietta at their first meetings with the corresponding text of Shakespeare’s
    Romeo and Juliet
    , especially in Act I, Scene V, and Act II, Scene II. Note where Fortier follows Shakespeare and where she goes her own way. Why do you think she makes those choices? How do those choices distinguish her versions of
    Romeo and Juliet
    from their more famous antecedents?
    

12. At one point, Alessandro tells Julie: “In my opinion, your story—and
    Romeo and Juliet
    as well—is not about love. It’s about politics. …” Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Why? What do you think the author’s opinion is?
    

13. Themes of guilt, redemption, and second chances course through the novel, especially in the present-day narrative, impelling many of the characters and their actions. Consider which characters embrace the opportunity of a second chance, and which don’t.
    

14. Another prevalent theme is that of twins and twinning. Not only are some characters born as twins, but others seem to be mirrored across the centuries. At one point in the novel, Julie sits on the front steps of the Siena Cathedral, thinking about the myth behind the black-and-white Siena coat-of-arms, the Balzana, which involves a pair of twins fleeing from their evil uncle on a black and a white horse. Why do you think Fortier has woven these threads – twinning and black-and-white – so strongly into her fictional tapestry?
    

15. Why does Alessandro keep his true identity a secret from Julie for so long? Is he right to do so?
    

16. Does Julie trust Alessandro too easily? Why does she wait so long to confront him with what she knows about his actions and his identity?
    

17. At the end of the novel, Julie muses: “Who knows, maybe there never was a curse. Maybe it was just us—all of us—thinking that we deserved one.” Do you think there was a curse, or not?
    

18. Flash forward five years past the end of the novel. What has happened to Julie and Janice? What about Umberto? If there was going to be a sequel to this novel, told from Janice’s point of view, what questions would you like to have answered, and what themes would you like so see further explored?