Look and Listen

Biography

Nino Argentina is a claims adjudicator in his late twenties living in Ottawa, Ontario married to Natalie a PhD student at Carleton University. Writing for almost thirteen years now, Nino has completed six novels, but his most recent work, Escape to Nice, is the first manuscript that he feels warrants some post-writing effort. All he had to do was take his personal experiences in meeting and eventually marrying his wife and amplifying those events and the obstacles that they faced when intertwining two cultures and religions. Add gory gang violence, deplorable racial slurs, and focus on the stereotypes and voila! Escape to Nice was born. Of Italian descent, raised in a Roman Catholic home and educated in Roman Catholic schools, Nino instantly took an interest in the world outside his comfort zone when he began his university studies. Admittedly, at the time his perception of anyone unlike himself was misguided and unfortunate; however, with time and exposure to the world outside his bubble, Nino has come to embrace what was once foreign to him. This experience and this period of growth in his life is prevalent in his work.

Inspiration

I read a lot of books before I turned fifteen years old, but then in 1995, my mother brought home a novel called The Fortunate Pilgrim by Mario Puzo. My first reaction was, hey, didn't that guy write Godfather? Somehow I felt almost ashamed to read something by Puzo that didn't involve the Corleone clan. I thought nothing could match The Godfather. Perhaps my basic knowledge of literature and pop culture was a blessing in disguise at the time - I picked up The Fortunate Pilgrim and read it in one sitting. For the first time I empathized with a character (or characters in this case). I could place myself in their predicaments - I was transported to a place I had never known before. When I finished the book, I still felt sorrow, as though the characters really existed and I had merely peered into their lives without so much as offering some kind of help. Taking some undue pleasure from their misery for my own personal enjoyment. It was that weekend that I decided I wanted to impact someone the same way Puzo had touched me with his story of a family struggling to assimilate and if not succeed, at the very least survive in a land that had promised them prosperity and happiness, but had failed to deliver. I completed my first short story before school rolled around Monday morning.