Trussoni, Danielle

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TRUSSONI, Danielle

PERSONAL:

Married; has children. Education: University of Wisconsin, B.A.; University of Iowa, M.F.A.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Providence, RI.

CAREER:

Writer.

WRITINGS:

Falling through the Earth: A Memoir, Henry Holt (New York, NY), 2006.

SIDELIGHTS:

Danielle Trussoni grew up in LaCrosse, Wisconsin, where she lived with her father following her parents' divorce, despite the fact that her siblings stayed with their mother. Trussoni's father, a veteran of the Vietnam War, suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, which often caused him to seek solace at the local bar, Roscoe's. Trussoni spent much of her teen years at the bar with her father, when she was not finding trouble on her own by skipping school and shoplifting. Yet even with this casual, destructive upbringing, Trussoni managed to get through the University of Wisconsin and then go on to earn a place at the prestigious Iowa Writers' Workshop, where she earned her M.F.A. Falling through the Earth: A Memoir tells the story of Trussoni's experiences with her father and about her struggles growing up, combined with the saga of her own trip to Asia, a journey she credits with giving her better insight into her father's behavior. Tina Jordan, writing for Entertainment Weekly, remarked that "the narrative structure is jarring, but the overall effect is harrowing." Booklist critic John Green, though, called the book "one of the best portrayals in recent memory of what it's like to grow up in a screwed-up, working-class family." A contributor for Kirkus Reviews found the book to be "a moving memoir that flows like the best fiction but that has the punch of real life."