Hailing from Long Island, New York, Suzanne Mattaboni is a Pushcart Prize-nominated creative writer, essayist, podcaster, corporate consultant, and the author of the debut novel “Once In A Lifetime.” A great summer read, the book is coming-of-age women’s fiction set in the 1980s with a feminist bend. It follows a determined young artist and her close-knit group of college roommates as they search for success, love, and the best experiences the emerging “new wave” scene has to offer.
Suzanne Mattaboni has always had a knack for narrative, going back to days of reporting on community service projects for New York’s Newsday. However, the act of making a good living as a corporate writer got in the way of her goals as an aspiring novelist. She eventually took the route of a corporate communications consultant, placing clients in prominent media like Bloomberg News, the New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal. She’s returned to fiction writing after a successful, ongoing corporate run. She also recently joined the ranks of the Newsweek Expert Forum, where she’ll be contributing pieces about arts and culture.
An astute storyteller with a literary flair, Suzanne Mattaboni’s debut is a worthy addition to her growing body of work. Once in a Lifetime captures the vibe of David Byrne’s new wave anthem of the same name, where an exasperated narrator is inspired to throw up their arms in confusion, wondering just what the hell landed them in this bewildering, barely recognizable place in their lives.
Once in a Lifetime is a fun, irreverent, yet intelligent read, achingly full of the things young people yearn for when it’s time to launch themselves into the adult world. It shows us a talented, driven heroine who wants to break free of her sheltered former life, develop her creative spirit, and “get over” being naive. It also shows how women in this confusing but trailblazing era were finally set loose to follow their dreams, while simultaneously threatening a generation of men who weren’t necessarily ready for them.
In the narrative, college junior (and reluctant waitress) Jessica Addentro pines for an exciting life of artsy fame and fortune as what she calls a “multimedia art superstar.” It’s a world she’s convinced is just beyond her fingertips, or at least beyond the college dorms she’s been limited to so far. Just as 20-year-old Jessica sets her sights on an avant-garde study abroad program at a London art school she can’t afford, her long-time boyfriend dumps her rather than play second fiddle to her ambitions.
Jessica’s quest unfolds against a vividly portrayed background of 1980’s new wave music and pop art in New Hope, Pennsylvania, a progressively artsy Philadelphia suburb full of river view restaurants, alternative music haunts, and galleries. Klutzy Jessica has to figure out how to earn enough tips as a waitress to subsidize the cost of that pricey London art school–that is, without cracking her skull on the uneven slate floors of Capresi’s Continental Restaurant, the only establishment in town that would hire her.
We follow this headstrong protagonist and her friends as they try to balance their love lives and budding careers in an era when women were finally told they could “have it all.” The restaurant and its eccentric but lovable crew become the girls’ manic if dysfunctional new home for the summer. They deal with everything from Jess’s fling with a hot daredevil guitarist, to drag shows, punk concerts, revenge sex, cheating waiters, and a Jeep that lands in the river on a dare.
Mattaboni’s previous short-form work has appeared in anthologies including the Chicken Soup for the Soul series, the ‘80s-themed Pizza Parties and Poltergeist, Little Demon Digest, What’s a Nice Girl Like You Doing in a Relationship Like This?, and The Running Wild Anthology of Stories. Her short pieces are an eclectic mix of relationship-oriented women’s fiction, horror stories, and young adult tales. Her fiction has been short-listed for awards in addition to the Pushcart, including in competitions with Writer’s Digest, New Millennium literary magazine, and Gotham Writers. She’s also a former first-place winner of Seventeen Magazine’s Art and Fiction Contest. But right now, she’s devoted to capturing the zeitgeist of the totally awesome decade where Once in a Lifetime lives.
“The ‘80s was an unbelievable time to come into your own,” Mattaboni says. “The music and design aesthetic of the era defined who you were. It dictated what friends you had, what clothes you wore, what clubs you went to. We hunted for music, as if a rare extended-play version of your favorite underground synth-pop song or a cool pair of punked-out boots was a trophy. Like it was your job to discover new songs. There was a haughtiness to it, even, as if we were all amateur A&R people.”
[Mattaboni, full of hairspray during a photo shoot circa 1987.]
In the coming years, Mattaboni is looking to continue the narrative for artsy protagonist Jessica on her rollercoaster journey to establish herself as an artist in late 1980’s Manhattan. “The city had a certain duality to it at that time. It was exciting as all-get-out, with landmark clubs like the Limelight and the Palladium creating an unforgettable scene, yet with the grittiness and danger of Times Square around the corner, back in the days before gentrification,” Mattaboni says. “I’d like to see Jessica tackle that world.”
But for the moment, she’d like to see Once in a Lifetime take off, playing on the resurgence of ‘80s-based entertainment ranging from Netflix’s “Stranger Things” to YA books like Eleanor & Park and Like A Love Story. And let’s not forget David Byrne’s American Utopia on Broadway, which dredged-up the excitement of the songs of that decade. This novel strives for something similar, while paying tribute to women of that era.
Photo credits: Lynnette Van Balen, White Lightning Images; Jeff Flaxx Studios
