Joseph Colicchio said that in writing his second novel, “The Trouble With Mental Wellness,” (Bridge Works Publishing, 2004) it was important that he wrote of the characters just as they are, not romanticized or demeaned.
“I write with a real love for the characters,” Colicchio said. “They are not more stupid or noble.”
Coliccchio, a Jersey City native and teacher of English and creative writing at Hudson County Community College (HCCC), covers the exploits of Nicky Finnuche, a bumbler through life who finds himself with enough college credits to qualify as a psychiartrist. He opens Finnuche’s Mental Wellness Center, a clinic located inside what was once his family’s meat market.
The novel, published in April, is set in a place called High Gate, which many Jersey City natives will immediately recognize as the Heights section of Jersey City. In the novel, there are references sprinkled throughtout the book to such places as Central Avenue, Bowers Street, and Pershing Field.
Colicchio said that he chose the name of High Gate because it is a “kind of gate that locks you in,” as he saw the Heights section where he grew up. Until 12 years ago, he lived in the area. He saw it as a place where many of the residents wanted to preserve their way of life but were shutting themselves out from the world. He grew up on Hancock Avenue.
Unlike his first novel, “High Gate Health and Beauty,” which also explored the fictional geographic counterpart of the Heights, the second novel by Colicchio wasn’t as structured.
“With this novel, I knew that it was going to be in Jersey City and I had this character of Nicky Finnuche, and that was it,” said Colicchio. “I went through quite a bit with the passage of time, a lot of revision.”
He started the novel in the summer of 2001, working on it intensely until September, when he resumed his full-time job at HCCC. He said that he was able to finish in over a year’s time, as it was accepted by Bridge Works in the late fall of 2002, with revisions to follow over the next year and a half.
It wouldn’t taken as long, according to Colicchio, except that career as a teacher and a novelist clashed.
“Both jobs are 24 hours a day,” he said. “I find it difficult to be a full-time teacher and a full-time writer. When I am really in the middle of writing, everything just passes by. If you got other things on your mind, it just makes you a less effective writer.”
But Colicchio also saw a benefit in working full-time at the college, as it offered him the opportunity to visit often the neighborhood where he grew up.
When asked if he wanted to comment on the politics of Jersey City, Colicchio said that he wanted to avoid that in his second novel. In the first, he explored the issues of race, politics and gentrification.
When asked about his literary influences, he cited Kurt Vonnegut’s early work as inspiration and guidance.
“As ridiculous as his characters are, he seemed to love them,” said Colicchio.
But Colicchio said that he gained inspiration for writing from the people he grew up with on Hancock Avenue and throughout the Heights.
Colicchio also said that he is currently in the early stages of researching for a new book to be set in Somerville, Mass., where he spent several years after graduating from Rutgers University in 1976 with a master’s in creative writing.
For more information on the book and upcoming readings by Colicchio, contact Bridge Works Publishing Company at (301) 459-3366.