Roland Merullo
Encyclopedia
Roland Merullo is an American
author who writes novel
s, essay
s and memoir
. His best-known works are the novels Breakfast with Buddha
, In Revere, In Those Days, A Little Love Story, Revere Beach
Boulevard and the memoir Revere Beach Elegy. His books have been translated into Spanish, Portuguese, Korean
and German.
and raised in Revere, Massachusetts
. His father, Roland (Orlando) was a civil engineer
who worked for state government and was named personnel secretary by Christian Herter
, governor
of Massachusetts. He attended Suffolk Law School, passed the Bar
at the age of sixty and became an attorney. Eileen, his mother, was a physical therapist who worked at Walter Reed Army Hospital with amputees injured in the Pacific Theatre of World War II. Later, she became a science teacher and taught at the middle school
level for 25 years. He has two brothers, Steve and Ken.
Merullo earned his high school degree from Phillips Exeter Academy
. After having initially enrolled as an undergraduate at Boston University
, he received a B.A.
and an M.A.
(in Russian Language and Literature) from Brown University
. Merullo spent time in Micronesia
during a stint with the Peace Corps
, worked in the former Soviet Union
for the United States Information Agency
and was employed as a cab driver and carpenter. He taught creative writing at Bennington College
and Amherst College
, and was a writer in residence at Miami Dade College
s and North Shore Community College
. He met Amanda Stearns, a photographer, while enrolled at Brown. They began dating in 1978 and were married in the fall of 1979. After living in Vermont
for several years, the couple settled in western Massachusetts
. They have two daughters: Alexandra and Juliana.
His first published essays appeared in the early 1980s. They include a piece on solitude featured in The Rosicrucian Digest
and a humorous "My Turn" column for Newsweek
.
in 1991 and named a B. Dalton Discovery Series Choice. Publishers Weekly
called his second book A Russian Requiem "...smoothly written and multifaceted, solidly depicting the isolation and poverty of a city far removed from Moscow and insightfully exploring the psyches of individuals caught in the conflicts between their ideals and their careers..."
The works Revere Beach Boulevard, In, Revere in Those Days, and Revere Beach Elegy, are often referred to as the Revere Beach trilogy. Of In, Revere in Those Days David Shribman of the Boston Globe wrote "...The details are just right, and the result is a portrait of a time and a place and a state of mind that has few equals.This is a story that is true to life because it is about life itself, the tragedies and trials and travails, and even the triumphs, momentary and meaningless as they sometimes seem. This is a Boston story for the ages..." PBS correspondent Ray Suarez
said "...I've never met Roland Merullo, or even read anything he's written before now. Yet today I feel as if I've known him my whole life. . . . At the close of Elegy, the reader is comfortably walking alongside a man who has grown into himself, accepted and embraced his past..."
A Little Love Story was published in 2005. It is a tale about a woman with Cystic Fibrosis
that "tinkers with traditional formula, the lovers are neither innocent nor naïve, nor completely helpless in the face of their impossible barrier to produce a love story for the 21st century..." This novel "circumscribes a dramatic arc that takes in 9/11, media saturation, lecherous men in politics, ethnic family stereotypes, adult-onset dementia, and terminal illness in the relatively young. This is an utterly charming, beautifully told, completely affecting story that is one part love story, one part medical thriller..."
Merullo’s early works have been termed thoughtful and reflective. "I think I am a person who cares about the emotional life of people...and so I spend a lot of time on the emotional experiences of my characters—rather than, say, their intellectual experiences," he once said. But, Golfing with God, Breakfast with Buddha and American Savior exhibited a more overtly spiritual theme – albeit humorous in tone. The seeds of this thematic shift can perhaps be traced to A Little Love Story. However, in the fall of 2008, Merullo surprised many with the release of Fidel’s Last Days, his first thriller. Merullo has addressed these changes saying, "...I've had editors counsel me to write the same book over and over, and some readers who complained that I haven’t kept writing books set in greater Boston. But it would be like trying to keep a migratory bird in your backyard. I just want to go places, to see things, to observe the human predicament in different forms... Like most novelists, I have a peculiar fascination with the way people behave and the psychological roots of, or reasons for, their behavior..."
The actor, John Turturro
secured a film option to Leaving Losapas and Tony Musante
has one on the novel Revere Beach Boulevard.
Merullo has won the Massachusetts Book Award for non fiction and the Maria Thomas Fiction Prize. He has been a Booklist
Editor's Choice recipient and was among the finalists for a PEN New England / Winship Prize. In 2009, Breakfast with Buddha was nominated for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award
and American Savior was chosen as an Honor Book in Fiction at the Massachusetts Book Awards. Revere Beach Boulevard was recently named one of New England's top 100 essential books by The Boston Globe.
(The list below has links to articles that Roland Merullo has written; these were published by Good Housekeeping
, Forbes Magazine, The Boston Globe
, UU World, Travel + Leisure Golf
, The Philadelphia Inquirer
, Golf Magazine
, Reader’s Digest, The Chronicle of Higher Education
, The New York Times
, Golf Digest
, Outside Magazine, Links Magazine and other media outlets.)
*Profiles
*Interviews
*Miscellaneous
Pictures taken during Merullo's State Department assignment:
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
author who writes novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
s, essay
Essay
An essay is a piece of writing which is often written from an author's personal point of view. Essays can consist of a number of elements, including: literary criticism, political manifestos, learned arguments, observations of daily life, recollections, and reflections of the author. The definition...
s and memoir
Memoir
A memoir , is a literary genre, forming a subclass of autobiography – although the terms 'memoir' and 'autobiography' are almost interchangeable. Memoir is autobiographical writing, but not all autobiographical writing follows the criteria for memoir set out below...
. His best-known works are the novels Breakfast with Buddha
Breakfast with Buddha
Breakfast with Buddha is a 2007 spiritual fiction novel by American author Roland Merullo. According to this story, Otto Ringling, an editor of food books who lives in New York and a skeptic, reluctantly goes onto a road trip with Volya Rinpoche, a Siberian monk...
, In Revere, In Those Days, A Little Love Story, Revere Beach
Revere Beach
Revere Beach is a public beach in Revere, Massachusetts. Located about 4 miles north of downtown Boston, the beach, founded in 1895, is the first public beach in the country. In the past, it was known as the Coney Island of New England...
Boulevard and the memoir Revere Beach Elegy. His books have been translated into Spanish, Portuguese, Korean
and German.
Early life
Merullo was born in BostonBoston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
and raised in Revere, Massachusetts
Revere, Massachusetts
Revere is a city in Suffolk County, Massachusetts, United States, and located approximately from downtown Boston. It is named after the American patriot Paul Revere. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 51,755.- History :...
. His father, Roland (Orlando) was a civil engineer
Civil engineer
A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering; the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructures while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing infrastructures that have been neglected.Originally, a...
who worked for state government and was named personnel secretary by Christian Herter
Christian Herter
Christian Archibald Herter was an American politician and statesman; 59th governor of Massachusetts from 1953 to 1957, and United States Secretary of State from 1959 to 1961.-Early life:...
, governor
Governor
A governor is a governing official, usually the executive of a non-sovereign level of government, ranking under the head of state...
of Massachusetts. He attended Suffolk Law School, passed the Bar
Bar (law)
Bar in a legal context has three possible meanings: the division of a courtroom between its working and public areas; the process of qualifying to practice law; and the legal profession.-Courtroom division:...
at the age of sixty and became an attorney. Eileen, his mother, was a physical therapist who worked at Walter Reed Army Hospital with amputees injured in the Pacific Theatre of World War II. Later, she became a science teacher and taught at the middle school
Middle school
Middle School and Junior High School are levels of schooling between elementary and high schools. Most school systems use one term or the other, not both. The terms are not interchangeable...
level for 25 years. He has two brothers, Steve and Ken.
Merullo earned his high school degree from Phillips Exeter Academy
Phillips Exeter Academy
Phillips Exeter Academy is a private secondary school located in Exeter, New Hampshire, in the United States.Exeter is noted for its application of Harkness education, a system based on a conference format of teacher and student interaction, similar to the Socratic method of learning through asking...
. After having initially enrolled as an undergraduate at Boston University
Boston University
Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...
, he received a B.A.
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
and an M.A.
Master of Arts (postgraduate)
A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...
(in Russian Language and Literature) from Brown University
Brown University
Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...
. Merullo spent time in Micronesia
Micronesia
Micronesia is a subregion of Oceania, comprising thousands of small islands in the western Pacific Ocean. It is distinct from Melanesia to the south, and Polynesia to the east. The Philippines lie to the west, and Indonesia to the southwest....
during a stint with the Peace Corps
Peace Corps
The Peace Corps is an American volunteer program run by the United States Government, as well as a government agency of the same name. The mission of the Peace Corps includes three goals: providing technical assistance, helping people outside the United States to understand US culture, and helping...
, worked in the former Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
for the United States Information Agency
United States Information Agency
The United States Information Agency , which existed from 1953 to 1999, was a United States agency devoted to "public diplomacy". In 1999, USIA's broadcasting functions were moved to the newly created Broadcasting Board of Governors, and its exchange and non-broadcasting information functions were...
and was employed as a cab driver and carpenter. He taught creative writing at Bennington College
Bennington College
Bennington College is a liberal arts college located in Bennington, Vermont, USA. The college was founded in 1932 as a women's college and became co-educational in 1969.-History:-Early years:...
and Amherst College
Amherst College
Amherst College is a private liberal arts college located in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. Amherst is an exclusively undergraduate four-year institution and enrolled 1,744 students in the fall of 2009...
, and was a writer in residence at Miami Dade College
Miami Dade College
Miami Dade College, or simply Miami Dade or MDC, is a state college with eight campuses and twenty-one outreach centers located throughout Miami-Dade County, Florida in the United States. It is part of the Florida College System. Miami Dade College is the largest school in the Florida College...
s and North Shore Community College
North Shore Community College
North Shore Community College is a two-year community college in Danvers and Lynn Massachusetts. It offers associate degrees as well as a transfer program for students to earn credits for transfer to other colleges...
. He met Amanda Stearns, a photographer, while enrolled at Brown. They began dating in 1978 and were married in the fall of 1979. After living in Vermont
Vermont
Vermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state ranks 43rd in land area, , and 45th in total area. Its population according to the 2010 census, 630,337, is the second smallest in the country, larger only than Wyoming. It is the only New England...
for several years, the couple settled in western Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
. They have two daughters: Alexandra and Juliana.
His first published essays appeared in the early 1980s. They include a piece on solitude featured in The Rosicrucian Digest
Rosicrucian Digest
Rosicrucian Digest is a publication of AMORC, published continuously from 1915.It is sent to members via correspondence, but it is also available to the general public.You can read Rosicrucian Digest issues at the web site of the ....
and a humorous "My Turn" column for Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
.
Later life and works
Leaving Losapas, Merullo's first novel, was published by Houghton MifflinHoughton Mifflin
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is an educational and trade publisher in the United States. Headquartered in Boston's Back Bay, it publishes textbooks, instructional technology materials, assessments, reference works, and fiction and non-fiction for both young readers and adults.-History:The company was...
in 1991 and named a B. Dalton Discovery Series Choice. Publishers Weekly
Publishers Weekly
Publishers Weekly, aka PW, is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers and literary agents...
called his second book A Russian Requiem "...smoothly written and multifaceted, solidly depicting the isolation and poverty of a city far removed from Moscow and insightfully exploring the psyches of individuals caught in the conflicts between their ideals and their careers..."
The works Revere Beach Boulevard, In, Revere in Those Days, and Revere Beach Elegy, are often referred to as the Revere Beach trilogy. Of In, Revere in Those Days David Shribman of the Boston Globe wrote "...The details are just right, and the result is a portrait of a time and a place and a state of mind that has few equals.This is a story that is true to life because it is about life itself, the tragedies and trials and travails, and even the triumphs, momentary and meaningless as they sometimes seem. This is a Boston story for the ages..." PBS correspondent Ray Suarez
Ray Suarez
Rafael Suarez, Jr. , known as Ray Suarez, is an American broadcast journalist. Suarez joined the PBS NewsHour in 1999 and became a senior correspondent for the evening news program on the PBS television network. He is also host of the international news and analysis public radio program America...
said "...I've never met Roland Merullo, or even read anything he's written before now. Yet today I feel as if I've known him my whole life. . . . At the close of Elegy, the reader is comfortably walking alongside a man who has grown into himself, accepted and embraced his past..."
A Little Love Story was published in 2005. It is a tale about a woman with Cystic Fibrosis
Cystic fibrosis
Cystic fibrosis is a recessive genetic disease affecting most critically the lungs, and also the pancreas, liver, and intestine...
that "tinkers with traditional formula, the lovers are neither innocent nor naïve, nor completely helpless in the face of their impossible barrier to produce a love story for the 21st century..." This novel "circumscribes a dramatic arc that takes in 9/11, media saturation, lecherous men in politics, ethnic family stereotypes, adult-onset dementia, and terminal illness in the relatively young. This is an utterly charming, beautifully told, completely affecting story that is one part love story, one part medical thriller..."
Merullo’s early works have been termed thoughtful and reflective. "I think I am a person who cares about the emotional life of people...and so I spend a lot of time on the emotional experiences of my characters—rather than, say, their intellectual experiences," he once said. But, Golfing with God, Breakfast with Buddha and American Savior exhibited a more overtly spiritual theme – albeit humorous in tone. The seeds of this thematic shift can perhaps be traced to A Little Love Story. However, in the fall of 2008, Merullo surprised many with the release of Fidel’s Last Days, his first thriller. Merullo has addressed these changes saying, "...I've had editors counsel me to write the same book over and over, and some readers who complained that I haven’t kept writing books set in greater Boston. But it would be like trying to keep a migratory bird in your backyard. I just want to go places, to see things, to observe the human predicament in different forms... Like most novelists, I have a peculiar fascination with the way people behave and the psychological roots of, or reasons for, their behavior..."
The actor, John Turturro
John Turturro
John Michael Turturro is an American actor, writer and director known for his roles in the films Do the Right Thing , Miller's Crossing , Barton Fink , Quiz Show , The Big Lebowski , O Brother, Where Art Thou? and the Transformers film series...
secured a film option to Leaving Losapas and Tony Musante
Tony Musante
Anthony Peter Musante is an American actor.Musante was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, the son of Natalie Anne , a school teacher, and Anthony Peter Musante, an accountant. He attended Oberlin College and Northwestern University.Musante has acted in numerous feature films, in the United States...
has one on the novel Revere Beach Boulevard.
Merullo has won the Massachusetts Book Award for non fiction and the Maria Thomas Fiction Prize. He has been a Booklist
Booklist
Booklist is a publication of the American Library Association that provides critical reviews of books and audiovisual materials for all ages. It is geared toward libraries and booksellers and is available in print or online...
Editor's Choice recipient and was among the finalists for a PEN New England / Winship Prize. In 2009, Breakfast with Buddha was nominated for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award
International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award
The International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award is an international literary award for a work of fiction, jointly sponsored by the city of Dublin, Ireland and the company IMPAC. At €100,000 it is one of the richest literary prizes in the world...
and American Savior was chosen as an Honor Book in Fiction at the Massachusetts Book Awards. Revere Beach Boulevard was recently named one of New England's top 100 essential books by The Boston Globe.
Novels
- Leaving Losapas (1991)
- A Russian Requiem (1993)
- Revere Beach Boulevard (1998)
- In Revere, In Those Days (2002)
- A Little Love Story (2005)
- Golfing with God (2005)
- Breakfast with Buddha (2007)
- American Savior (2008)
- Fidel's Last Days (2008)
- The Talk-Funny Girl (2011)
Non Fiction and Memoir
- Passion for Golf (2000)
- Revere Beach Elegy (2000)
- The Italian Summer: Golf, Food and Family at Lake Como (2009)
- Demons of the Blank Page: 15 Obstacles That Keep You From Writing & How To Conquer Them (2011)
As contributor or editor
- Our Fathers: Reflections by Sons (Beacon Press 2002)
External links
* Essays / Other(The list below has links to articles that Roland Merullo has written; these were published by Good Housekeeping
Good Housekeeping
Good Housekeeping is a women's magazine owned by the Hearst Corporation, featuring articles about women's interests, product testing by The Good Housekeeping Institute, recipes, diet, health as well as literary articles. It is well known for the "Good Housekeeping Seal," popularly known as the...
, Forbes Magazine, The Boston Globe
The Boston Globe
The Boston Globe is an American daily newspaper based in Boston, Massachusetts. The Boston Globe has been owned by The New York Times Company since 1993...
, UU World, Travel + Leisure Golf
Travel + Leisure Golf
Travel + Leisure Golf was a bimonthly American magazine published by American Express. Unlike other golf magazines, Travel + Leisure Golf focused less on the sport than on the affluent golf lifestyle, with regular features on cars, resorts, wines, and spirits....
, The Philadelphia Inquirer
The Philadelphia Inquirer
The Philadelphia Inquirer is a morning daily newspaper that serves the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, metropolitan area of the United States. The newspaper was founded by John R. Walker and John Norvell in June 1829 as The Pennsylvania Inquirer and is the third-oldest surviving daily newspaper in the...
, Golf Magazine
Golf Magazine
Golf Magazine is a monthly golf magazine owned by Time Inc.. It was started in 1960 by Universal Publishing and Distributing, who sold it to Times Mirror in 1972. Time Inc. acquired it in 2000. It was the world's most widely read golf publication from August 2006 to January 2007. The magazine is...
, Reader’s Digest, The Chronicle of Higher Education
The Chronicle of Higher Education
The Chronicle of Higher Education is a newspaper and website that presents news, information, and jobs for college and university faculty, staff members and administrators....
, The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, Golf Digest
Golf Digest
Golf Digest is a monthly golf magazine published by Condé Nast Publications in the United States. It is a generalist golf publication covering recreational golf and men's and women's competitive golf. Condé Nast Publications also publishes the more specialized , and Golf World Business. The...
, Outside Magazine, Links Magazine and other media outlets.)
- "The Writing Life"
- "The Great Imaginary President"
- "Summer School"
- "Addiction and our cylinder of need"
- "Moving Forward While Looking Back"
- "A Precious Miracle"
- "Obama, McCain: Saint or narcissist?"
- "How not to vote for a president"
- "The Writer-Reader Connection"
- "The line between comfort and greed"
- "Voyage of emptiness"
- "No burgers, but still nifty"
- "Counting up my foreign 'fox pass'"
- "Religion's communal impulse"
- "Courtship bravado"
- "A grave lesson from Mussolini"
- "The Soul, Sanded Smooth"
- "True North"
- "Labor Daze"
- "Of Young Life and Breath"
- "Every Breath He Takes"
- "The Challenge of First Generation College Students"
- "The Brief Candle"
- "Hatred and Its Sly Legacy"
- "A Puzzling America"
- "Road Trip"
- "Digging Boston"
- "High Plains Drifter"
- "Of God, and Men"
- "Who Financed 9/11? : One family's quest to trace the money behind the murders"
- "A Skeptical Appreciation on the Value of Goodness"
- "Trade Secrets: Let Flies Keep Out, Let Summer Fly In"
- "18 Holes at Harvest Times"
- "The Balsams Grand Resort"
- "At Home With Anita Shreve: A Muse Full of Dormers"
- "Breaking my back, but not me"
- "See You in Six Months: Maximum Dose"
- "Hot Springs Golf"
- The Boston Tangler
- "J. Calvin Jureit, Inventor Who Transformed Home Building"
*Profiles
- http://www.cff.org/LivingWithCF/InTheSpotlight/PreviouslyFeatured/index.cfm?ID=5913&TYPE=3124 "In the Spotlight" - Cystic Fibrosis FoundationCystic Fibrosis FoundationThe Cystic Fibrosis Foundation is a non-profit organization in the United States established to provide the means to cure and control cystic fibrosis . The Foundation provides information about cystic fibrosis and finances CF research that aims to improve the quality of life for people with the...
Website] - Author page at agent's website (Marly Rusoff & Associates)
- http://www.randomhouse.com/author/results.pperl?authorid=20411 Author page at Random HouseRandom HouseRandom House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...
website] - http://authors.simonandschuster.com/Roland-Merullo Author page at Simon & SchusterSimon & SchusterSimon & Schuster, Inc., a division of CBS Corporation, is a publisher founded in New York City in 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. It is one of the four largest English-language publishers, alongside Random House, Penguin and HarperCollins...
website] - Author page at Algonquin Books website
- http://web.bu.edu/agni/authors/R/Roland-Merullo.html A profile at AGNI (magazine)AGNI (magazine)AGNI is an American literary magazine that publishes poetry, fiction, essays, reviews, interviews, and artwork twice a year in print and biweekly online from its home at Boston University...
website]
*Interviews
- American Savior related Podcast/Radio Interview
- Washington Post Interview/Podcast about American Savior 2008
- Quay Journal Interview 2007 - Matthew Quick
- U.S. Department of State Video Interview about Merullo's Experience in the Soviet Union
- Transcript of State Department video interview above
- Bostonia regarding Fidel's Last Days
- Endless Knots Blog Interview and info about American Savior and other topics
- Strategies for Living: Radio Interview regarding Breakfast with Buddha
- Breakfast with Buddha related radio interview on Public Radio Exchange (PRX)
- Breakfast with Buddha related text interview
- NPR's Talk of the Nation Radio Program: A Discussion of Summer Towns
- KCBX FM Radio Interview with a focus on Breakfast with Buddha
*Miscellaneous
Pictures taken during Merullo's State Department assignment: