Bill Pezza’s upcoming fifth book Till the Boys Come Home may be set in the era of World War II, but it has many parallels to society’s current battle with COVID-19.
“I don’t know if I was influenced because I was writing it during the quarantine, but I guess I was. World War II was a time of despair. Men went off to war, and some women, too,” Pezza told The Times. “It was a lot of hardship. But people hung with it. They fought through it, they rose to the occasion, and I hope there’s a lesson in that for us today. It seems like an insurmountable task that we’re facing, but I think we will come out of it.”
The Bristol Borough resident and Bucks County Community College American history instructor’s latest creation, slated for release this month, is a prequel to his 2006 novel Anna’s Boys, which takes place during the Vietnam War.
“It [Anna’s Boys] follows a group of boys who graduate from high school in the 1960s at the height of the war, and it follows them for the next, literally, 50 years,” Pezza said. “It was very well received. It’s a very emotional book. It makes you laugh, it makes you cry.”
Two sequels (Stealing Tomatoes and Homegrown) followed in 2009 and 2013, respectively, in addition to How Bristol Won: And Will Keep on Winning – a reflection on how the town won the Small Business Revolution competition, sponsored by Deluxe Corporation, in 2017.
Till the Boys Come Home centers on Jack Francelli and his girlfriend, Annie Genello – the parents of the young men in Anna’s Boys. Readers are transported to 1940s Bristol, when cherished landmarks like the Grand Theater and the Bristol House on Mill Street are in full swing.
“It’s got a lot of local color in it,” Pezza said. “In my book, the theater’s open and people are going there to enjoy the entertainment. They’re dining in places that are no longer there.”
After graduating from Bristol High School in 1941, the pair becomes consumed by the war effort, Jack as a member of the 82nd Airborne fighting in Sicily, Anzio and Normandy, and Annie on the home front as an employee at the Kaiser-Fleetwing aircraft plant on Radcliffe Street, and an advocate for Blue Star families.
While Anna’s Boys took Pezza nearly two years to complete, the prequel was finished in a mere three months.
“I’m not spending time at Itri like I used to sitting at the bar having dinner, so I’m getting a lot of writing done each day,” he said, adding that he typically works best in the morning or late at night.
Though he admitted this schedule sometimes messed up his sleeping patterns, Pezza is proud of the end result, which, like its predecessors, puts a face on history.
“When we read about wars and major historical events, we tend to look at them from the top down. We tend to study history from the presidents. We study wars and generals. And I do the opposite,” he said. “I like to look at it from the bottom up, look at the common person who is experiencing the event in a personal way. I like to try to get the reader invested in the character, so that when he goes off to war, or when his fiance stays home and is encountering things at home, you’re feeling things for them. That brings life to the event. It makes it something people can relate to because that’s really what history is. What are common people doing as events unfold?”
Thanks to its hyperlocal setting, Till the Boys Come Home is especially relatable for the residents of Bristol Borough.
“It’s a book about small-town America. It’s set in Bristol. You get that feel. For those in the Bristol area who read it, it gives them a sense of pride. People enjoy seeing the streets and the places that they recognize,” he said. “But it’s really about small-town America. Any small-town inhabitant could read it and relate to how small towns respond to crisis, how people bond together, and how they form personal relationships and suffer together and celebrate together – something that you don’t always get when you’re living in suburbia.”
Till the Boys Come Home will be available in print and digital format on Amazon.com by the end of June. Pezza will also take preorders for signed copies, and work with individuals to determine a pickup time and location.
Samantha Bambino can be reached at sbambino@newspapermediagroup.com
