Adele Varley
Student’s novel tells the strange immigrant story of “Grandpa John’
Like most Americans might, if they looked, Adele Varley discovered her family history is rich with source material for a novel. The result is a research project titled “An American Homecoming: A Novel Exploring How Family, Secrecy, and Immigration in the Early 20th Century Impacts the Present.”
The novel takes the story of her great-great Italian American grandparents, who left their respective families in California to start a new life together in Omaha, Nebraska, as the basis of a work of fiction that involves pre-World War I Italian immigrants, a secret family and a brother-and-sister team that in 1981 tracks down the improbable truth behind Gio Bacigalupo, known to his American family under the assumed name of John Bassi, or Grandpa John.
“The story roughly follows that of my great-great-grandparents, Anna and Frank Bianchi, who left their respective families in California to begin a new life together in Omaha, Nebraska,” Varley says. “This novel is not only a story inspired by my great-great-grandparents but is also a story of two siblings who discover the truth behind their family history and come to terms with what it means for them and their family.”
Varley, a native of Minneapolis, Minnesota, and a member of Creighton’s Class of 2025, is an English and Spanish major, with minors in classical languages and classical and Near Eastern civilizations.
Like any aspiring novelist, Varley is busily researching the details of the era she describes, with Creighton’s archives proving a useful source of Omaha’s history.
“To gain inspiration and understanding, I am focusing on multiple areas of research, namely farm life in rural Italy, conditions working for railroad companies in Omaha and San Francisco, cultural and religious attitudes around divorce, the history of Italian Americans in North Omaha, and immigration,” she says.
“I will be accessing the Creighton Archives to research aspects of Omaha's history, and I am also conducting interviews with my family members who discovered my grandparents' story as well as family members who knew my great-great-grandparents.”
