My character’s name is Brick Romano. He is a short, muscular, nineteen-year-old kid growing up in the Bloomfield, a mostly Italian neighborhood of Pittsburgh in the 1920s. He lives in a cramped apartment with two younger brothers and younger sister. His dad works long, hot hours for Carnegie Steel and is rarely ever home because of it. His mother is an alcoholic and stay-at-home mom. Brick’s father’s absence and his mother’s near-constant intoxication leaves him in a parental role and often causes his social life to suffer. Brick is head over heels in love with a girl who goes by “Kitty.” Kitty lives in Shadyside an affluent neighborhood of Pittsburgh and is from a strict, Presbyterian family, which causes turmoil in the budding romance.
