Daniel Damiano has written an extraordinary novel. "The Woman in the Sun Hat" takes us on a journey from start to finish that not only invites us into the world of the protagonist Peggy Bubone, but helps us to inhabit that world with her in all its sometimes uncomfortable, emotionally challenging, earthy and ultimately invigorating glory. At times so deeply moving in its depiction of Peggy's life that continuing to read felt like a personal excavation, this is a novel that begins far away from where it ends and yet somehow brings together the strands of a woman's life in a way that is both breathtakingly beautiful and heart-wrenchingly painful.
I met Daniel a few years ago when I was invited to a reading of one of his plays that an Actress friend was a part of, and at the time I offered to write a blog about him because his writing is excellent. In the process of getting to know him more, I attended a production of his one man show, "American Tranquility," and enjoyed his tour de force performance so much that I returned when it was brought to the stage again a few months later. Writing about him then I noted that the characters he creates have so many levels and layers that they are not only infinitely fascinating, but they are unique and real even in their sometimes hilarious commentary, dialogue and actions. They are also people that we come to deeply care about, as we discover more of what's underneath the surface of their lives, and we find ourselves rooting for them to find whatever the golden road is that they are looking for.
"The Woman in the Sun Hat" is not like any novel I have ever read before. It is also written in such a personally unique style that it was refreshing to experience it. The first time I read it, I told Daniel that though in the beginning the characters were entertaining, I was unable to understand why it was only later that I began to embrace them. I've realized since then that it is because of the arc of Peggy's transformation. As she moves through the story, she becomes many things that in their complexity reveal the deep roots of her humanity. In my second reading of his newly edited pre-published version, though I knew where the story was going I still enjoyed the pure act of reading in a way that is not always the case. I love to read and have since I was a very young child, but I usually gravitate to certain styles and certain authors. This novel is in a way very different from the writing I would normally say was my style, the lyrical romantically beautiful language of F. Scott Fitzgerald, passages of Proust, or the English classics of the Bronte's, Jane Austen and Charles Dickens, but though it has its own rhythms and traditions there is a very special something that draws the reader in and makes us want to continue on to find out just where we are going and where we will ultimately end up.
The story is a truly remarkable one, and the writing itself is so skillful, with the kind of language that jumps out at you not because it is trying to prove something but because it is so enjoyable. It's one of those books I found it difficult to put down and also one I wanted to take time over to savor and enjoy and not finish too quickly. To say that Daniel Damiano is a Wordsmith and a Master Craftsman is an understatement. He can do what many cannot, and create a world that is entirely his own that also reaches into our own personal experience and reminds us of those moments which are more powerful than anything, the expressions in a life that come from deep within the heart.
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