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Painting the Invisible Man
Based on a true event... In 2001, while researching the online archives of her hometown newspaper for a client, freelance writer Rita Schiano made a keying error a simple mistake that led her to a path she d been avoiding most of her life; on a journey inside the world of her father, killed gangland-style more than two decades ago. Schiano turned that difficult journey into an engrossing novel, "Painting The Invisible Man," which explores the complex dynamics of growing up in an Italian family on the fringes of the Mafia. Employing philosophical insight and a sardonic wit, Schiano vividly takes the reader through myriad brushstrokes as her character paints the unfinished portraits of both her father and herself.
- GenresFiction
223 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2007
1 person is currently reading
31 people want to read
About the author
Rita Schiano
5 books9 followersUpdate 7/22/09: Get FREE SHIPPING (USPS media mail) on my books direct from publisher, http://www.reededwards.com. Simply use the use promo code GOODREADS.
Find me on Facebook:http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rita-Sc...
See promo trailer: http://smilebox.com/playBlog/4d544179...
Check out my interview on You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5-Mrt...
Rita Schiano is a freelance writer and the author of two novels, Sweet Bitter Love and Painting the Invisible Man. She has also written two full-length screenplays and one television pilot. A former singer who performed in numerous New York clubs, Rita is also a published songwriter as well.
Rita's "Not-So-Daily-Word" Blog
http://ritaschiano.blogspot.com
Find me on Facebook:http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rita-Sc...
See promo trailer: http://smilebox.com/playBlog/4d544179...
Check out my interview on You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5-Mrt...
Rita Schiano is a freelance writer and the author of two novels, Sweet Bitter Love and Painting the Invisible Man. She has also written two full-length screenplays and one television pilot. A former singer who performed in numerous New York clubs, Rita is also a published songwriter as well.
Rita's "Not-So-Daily-Word" Blog
http://ritaschiano.blogspot.com
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
May 25, 2009
I'll add a quote that says what i also think,
from her website http://www.ritaschiano.com/category/B...
“Schiano has a unique way of expressing emotion on paper, so much so that I wanted to read more of her books.”
Have you ever read a book that left you so full of emotion you found it hard to discuss its contents? It's not often a book renders me searching for words that adequately express my feelings, but Painting the Invisible Man has done just that.
from her website http://www.ritaschiano.com/category/B...
“Schiano has a unique way of expressing emotion on paper, so much so that I wanted to read more of her books.”
Have you ever read a book that left you so full of emotion you found it hard to discuss its contents? It's not often a book renders me searching for words that adequately express my feelings, but Painting the Invisible Man has done just that.
September 15, 2009
“Family Secrets…Secrets wound…Maybe learning the truth is the salve I need…Salve is an ointment. An ointment, a balm. A balm is an…unction. An unction is an anointing. An anointing…is a blessing. A blessing, a sanctification. To sanctify is to purify… Salve. Salvation.” (Excerpt from Painting the Invisible Man by Rita Schiano)
Rita Schiano’s novel, Painting the Invisible Man, is a one woman voyage in finding salvation from a family secret that has controlled every aspect of her life for 20 years. The journey begins with a frustrated Italian American writer named Anne Matteo who uses a novel by Amy Tan (author of The Joy Luck Club) as a talisman in the hopes of escaping the writer’s block that has plagued her for almost a decade. While researching the online archives of The Providence Journal (her hometown newspaper), Anne mistakenly purchases 10 copies of the same article with a slip of a key. She attempts to fix this typo but is thwarted by an outdated computer that freezes and an internet provider who keeps dropping her connection. Anne then decides to make the most of her error by running searches on family and friend names for the fun of it.
Fun is not what she finds.
Suddenly, Anne is face to face with the memories of her father’s murder 20 years ago, the family trauma that preceded the event and the suffering that followed. Blindsided by the past that she had been avoiding, Anne realizes that she will never be whole until she sees this exploration of her past through to the end. She puts her writing on hold and jumps into the abyss with the help of her best friend and her cousin…and the woman who eventually becomes her soul mate.
Rita Schiano creates a cast of multifaceted characters who are the backdrop to this first person tale of self discovery. Her liberal use of flashbacks create a sense of being “in Anne’s head” and living Anne’s life. In Painting the Invisible Man, Rita touches upon families, grief, loss, sexuality, and “coming of age”…all different parts of the human experience.
Rita Schiano’s novel, Painting the Invisible Man, is a one woman voyage in finding salvation from a family secret that has controlled every aspect of her life for 20 years. The journey begins with a frustrated Italian American writer named Anne Matteo who uses a novel by Amy Tan (author of The Joy Luck Club) as a talisman in the hopes of escaping the writer’s block that has plagued her for almost a decade. While researching the online archives of The Providence Journal (her hometown newspaper), Anne mistakenly purchases 10 copies of the same article with a slip of a key. She attempts to fix this typo but is thwarted by an outdated computer that freezes and an internet provider who keeps dropping her connection. Anne then decides to make the most of her error by running searches on family and friend names for the fun of it.
Fun is not what she finds.
Suddenly, Anne is face to face with the memories of her father’s murder 20 years ago, the family trauma that preceded the event and the suffering that followed. Blindsided by the past that she had been avoiding, Anne realizes that she will never be whole until she sees this exploration of her past through to the end. She puts her writing on hold and jumps into the abyss with the help of her best friend and her cousin…and the woman who eventually becomes her soul mate.
Rita Schiano creates a cast of multifaceted characters who are the backdrop to this first person tale of self discovery. Her liberal use of flashbacks create a sense of being “in Anne’s head” and living Anne’s life. In Painting the Invisible Man, Rita touches upon families, grief, loss, sexuality, and “coming of age”…all different parts of the human experience.
November 10, 2008
The writer, Anna Matteo settled into her workstation, cup of coffee and her Muse Amy Tan watching over her. But Anna didn’t write that day of the next.
Time passes, several days and nights and the Muse gently says, ‘Time to write’ over and over.
Finally it begins in fits and starts. Newmanuscript.doc has grown to 41 pages.
Another morning as Anna touched the keyboard an Ouiji effect moved her fingers and suddenly her father’s name, Paul Matteo materialized on the screen.
Date November 10, 1995.
Anna followed all the words until she was stopped by the phrase.
Paul Matteo murdered in 1976.
She was reading from a lawyer’s brief that spelled out the fact that her father was a gangster, working at the edge of the mob.
Anna loved her, always meticulously dressed, father, her hero. The little girl was so proud when she rode inside the big shiny car and was introduced to her father’s friends on her birthday.
So the grownup Anna Ouiji’s her way through the brief and into stark reality. She learns all about her father while at the same time holding on to the love she knew through the eyes of a little girl.
But the grownup Anna wanted to know more and from that day forward she took brushes and pallet and began Painting the Invisible Man.
Rita Schiano leads us through a family in distress mother, brother, aunts, uncles and cousins all with some degree of guilt or shame. There was only one exception – a little girl that held onto her own truth and love for her father.
Here’s fiction that feels like nonfiction.
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www.RocktheTower.com
October 19, 2009
"Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, 'Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen.'" (p. 110). This Emerson quote best sums up the central theme of Painting the Invisible Man by Rita Schiano. It's a roman à clef about a writer who in the course of researching her novel begins the painful process of investigating the truth behind her father's 1976 death.
The novel begins with the head shot of Amy Tan talking to Anna Matteo, telling her to write! Anna has been struggling for seven years to write a novel and has reached the point where she's procrastinating more than she's writing. The odd experience of having an author's photograph talk to her spurs her back into writing but she's not sure of the direction it is taking her.
Most of the book ends up focusing on Anna's childhood, her relationship with her father and the clues that she might have missed as a child that he had mob ties. I'm not normally a fan of mob stories. So often they seem over written and full of cliches. Perhaps because Rita Schiano was drawing inspiration from her own life, the events and characters seemed plausible. Underneath the crimes, they were still people and not just cookie cutter mobster characters.
In some of the reviews I've read there are complaints about the ending – that it's not tight enough. I like the way it ends. It ends by folding in on itself, thus connecting with the magical realism elements that pepper the present day events.
I received the book from the author for review and have since bookcrossed it.
The novel begins with the head shot of Amy Tan talking to Anna Matteo, telling her to write! Anna has been struggling for seven years to write a novel and has reached the point where she's procrastinating more than she's writing. The odd experience of having an author's photograph talk to her spurs her back into writing but she's not sure of the direction it is taking her.
Most of the book ends up focusing on Anna's childhood, her relationship with her father and the clues that she might have missed as a child that he had mob ties. I'm not normally a fan of mob stories. So often they seem over written and full of cliches. Perhaps because Rita Schiano was drawing inspiration from her own life, the events and characters seemed plausible. Underneath the crimes, they were still people and not just cookie cutter mobster characters.
In some of the reviews I've read there are complaints about the ending – that it's not tight enough. I like the way it ends. It ends by folding in on itself, thus connecting with the magical realism elements that pepper the present day events.
I received the book from the author for review and have since bookcrossed it.
May 14, 2009
"Painting The Invisible Man" is a story about Anna, a writer, who takes a journey into the past to uncover the truth about her father, Paulie Matteo. Paulie was brutally murdered in what looked to be a mob-style execution. Some gambling debts were the reason for Paulie's demise. Anna begins to look into her childhood and realizes that maybe her father was part of the mob. She remembers a particular car that used to park on her street. She painted her bicycle a different color every week to throw them off. She carried around a pellet gun and smoke bombs in her vest.
Anna starts researching the trial of the man who was accused of murdering her father is Angelo Capraro. Joey Casella, who just happens to have been Anna's first childhood crush, is accused of ordering the hit. She obtains what information she can from the library. With many questions still unanswered she calls her cousin Sophia and asks for a favor. Sophia's husband is Greg, the same man who is responsible for Joey's acquittal.
Will Anna get the answers she needs to move on in her life? Or will her father be a mystery forever?
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Anna is an extremely likable character who I was able to connect with. It is a wonderful story of one woman's determination to get the answers she needs. I definitely recommend this book.
Anna starts researching the trial of the man who was accused of murdering her father is Angelo Capraro. Joey Casella, who just happens to have been Anna's first childhood crush, is accused of ordering the hit. She obtains what information she can from the library. With many questions still unanswered she calls her cousin Sophia and asks for a favor. Sophia's husband is Greg, the same man who is responsible for Joey's acquittal.
Will Anna get the answers she needs to move on in her life? Or will her father be a mystery forever?
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Anna is an extremely likable character who I was able to connect with. It is a wonderful story of one woman's determination to get the answers she needs. I definitely recommend this book.
May 8, 2012
I was very moved by this book written by my college friend Rita Schiano. What a fine capture she made of what it is like to be a child living in a dangerous setting. Through the eyes and voice of a little girl, Rita tells her story from start to finish by revisiting her childhood throughout the book. If it was for me to tell a story that started so many years ago - I would have forgotten most of the details, all that would be left is smokey images. I am touched by Rita's ability to recreate herself from the early days till the present.
This book will be of help to anyone who has been a victim of violence, or even just loss. I could feel this positive light glowing all around after finishing "Painting The Invisible Man". I felt I had been helped in my own struggles; just as the author was helped/healed in her own mission for peace and reconciliation after more than a quarter century.
This book will be of help to anyone who has been a victim of violence, or even just loss. I could feel this positive light glowing all around after finishing "Painting The Invisible Man". I felt I had been helped in my own struggles; just as the author was helped/healed in her own mission for peace and reconciliation after more than a quarter century.
January 9, 2011
Love this complex storyline...
August 25, 2009
Three and a half to four stars! http://bookbirddog.blogspot.com/2009/...
Currently Reading
September 14, 2009I'm half way through this book and it's amazing. I had to read it after hearing Rita's interview on Blog Talk Radio
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews