- Robert Girardi
Robert Girardi (b. 1961) is an American author, writing on the themes of
mystery ordetective fiction , andreligion , like an AmericanGraham Greene ."I think the world is much more of a place in which a man can be rescued by cows from pirates than it is this
Raymond Carver world: 'The man picked up a cup of coffee. He put it down. He knew there would be no coffee today.'" ["Washington Post" 7/17/95 p. B-5] (referring toDaphnis and Chloe )"I'll always be slightly out of sync with my contemporaries. I've never felt fully American - despite valiant attempts, I cannot bring myself to enjoy pro football or shopping malls. At the same time, I'm certainly not European. Instead I'm something in between, a perennial expatriate, a refugee from the gray skys over France, from the screech of the train coming in to the Gare St. Lazare, from the wind blowing cold off Mount Olympus through the cracks around our bathroom window." ["Washingtonian" April 2000 p.44]
Biography
Girardi was born in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C., educated in Greece, France, and Springfield, Virginia. Youngest of four children, two sisters and one brother. "...I went to Catholic school, and she told us stories from the Bible. Then she left, and a Greek woman came and told us Greek myths. So as a narrative, it was the best education that you could get." [http://www.randomhouse.com/boldtype/0898/girardi/interview.html] His father was a CIA agent starting in Vienna, then Athens (during the military coup), and then Paris.
He created, wrote, and edited an underground newspaper in high school, titled "The New Wave", then "The Lee Wave", which included a comic strip titled "Gumshoe".
He majored in Studio Art at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville. He was first published during his undergraduate years in the Virginia Literary Review. After a brief stint at the Graduate Film School of the University of Southern California, he transferred to the University of Iowa where he graduated from the Writer's Workshop [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iowa_Writers%27_Workshop] with an M.F.A. in Fiction Writing in 1986. He also received the James Mitchener Fellowship for the manuscript of an early novel. [ [http://www.randomhouse.com/boldtype/0898/girardi/interview.html Bold Type: Interview with Robert Girardi] ] [http://library.georgetown.edu/dept/speccoll/girardi/index.htm Georgetown Special Collections] ]
Girardi labored for a decade, working at numerous odd jobs, writing seven unpublished novels, and several unproduced screenplays, before getting his first novel into print. Finally, an editor for Delacorte Press found the manuscript for "
Madeleine's Ghost " on a friend's coffee table and fell in love with the story. "If I hadn't been published, I would have gone mad. I was getting very bitter. I don't know what I would have done. I would probably have joined the priesthood." [Washington Post 7/17/95 p. B-5]Girardi followed with "Vaporetto 13", and "". He collected some novellas and short stories with ethical and religious themes, entitled "A Vaudeville of Devils: 7 Moral Tales". He also wrote the memoir piece for the "Washingtonian", about his 'spooky' upbringing, (notwithstanding his comments about the abuse of memoir). [http://www.randomhouse.com/boldtype/0898/girardi/interview.html]
After this flurry of publishing activity, he returned to Hollywood with his teleplays for "
Judging Amy " and "Joan of Arcadia " [ [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1171042/ Robert Girardi imdb] ] He became friends with Barbara Hall [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Hall_(TV_producer)] who renamed the family Girardi in the series.When he came back to mystery fiction with "
The Wrong Doyle ", it was with a small British publisher. [ [http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/g/robert-girardi/ About Robert Girardi] from fantasticfiction.com] [ [http://www.justincharlesbooks.com/book/?GCOI=19321100351330 ISBN and reviews] from justincharlesbooks.com] Apparently, the reorganization, ofDelacorte Press after the purchase ofRandom House byBertelsmann , cooled in their ardor for a well regarded novelist. Delacorte was repositioned as a young readers imprint. His books went out of print.A film adaptation of "Vaporetto 13" was optioned for a film by Warner/Di Novi. [ [http://www.killermovies.com/v/vaporetto13/articles/6321.html Robert Girardis 'Vaporetto 13' To Get Adapted] . www.killermovies.com]
He was spring 2008 writer-in-residence at Goucher College. [ [http://www.goucher.edu/x23636.xml Goucher College: News Story - Robert Girardi] ]
His manuscripts are held at Georgetown University.
His wife is the poet and novelist Linda Girardi.
Bibliography
Novels
#"
Madeleine's Ghost ", Delacorte Press (New York, NY), 1995.
#"", Delacorte Press (New York, NY), 1997.
#"", Delacorte Press (New York, NY), 1997.
#"", Delacorte Press (New York, NY), 1999.
#"The Wrong Doyle ", Sceptre (London, England), 2002, Justin, Charles (Boston, MA), 2004.Magazine Articles / Short Stories
#"Nose Job", "The New Republic", (November 13, 1995)
#"The Dinner Party", "TriQuarterly", Issue 99 (Spring/Summer 1997)
#"Spooks on the Roof", "Washingtonian", (April 2000)Teleplays
#"Imbroglio", "Judging Amy", (2001)
#"Vanity, Thy Name is Human", "Joan of Arcadia", (2004)Criticism
"Robert Girardi is the only writer I know of who is working successfully in the neglected tradition of
Guy de Maupassant ,Isak Dinesen , andEdgar Allan Poe --with as protean an imagination and as dexterous a pen as any of theirs. You can read these seven moral tales for pure entertainment, then wait to see what else may linger."--Madison Smartt Bell [ [http://www.powells.com/biblio/9780385333986?&PID=32442 Powell's Books - A Vaudeville of Devils: 7 Moral Tales by Robert Girardi] ]"One of the great protean imaginations of the twentieth century, Robert Girardi combines a firm grasp of the real with a marvelously entertaining flair for the fantastic. The Wrong Doyle, as much as "Vaporetto 13" or "Madeline's Ghost", provides a ringing answer to the question: "What if a literary writer knew how to plot?" "
Madison Smartt Bell References
See also
*
Iowa Writers' Workshop
*Catholic AuthorsPersondata
NAME = Girardi, Robert
ALTERNATIVE NAMES =
SHORT DESCRIPTION = American Novelist
DATE OF BIRTH =1961
PLACE OF BIRTH =Springfield ,Virginia United Staes
DATE OF DEATH =
PLACE OF DEATH =
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