aunt, with whom she lives, a devout Catholic woman. Her son Angelo is a priest, whom she treats like a baby. She accidentally gets caught up in an illegal entanglement with Edward and his friends. Barbara Zanni - Edward's estranged mother who makes a reappearance at the end of the novel. She is a free spirit who cannot be tied down by a husband and two children. Literary significance and reception How I Paid for College was generally well received by critics. Some reviewers complain about the outlandish and somewhat unbelievable occurrences in the story, such as Melissa Rose Bernardo of Entertainment Weekly who claimed the novel would only appeal "to those with incredibly active imaginations." However, most were keen to assert the fun and humor of the novel, including Ben Arnold of the BBC who defined it as "Wildly camp and achingly funny...the best teen movie never made." Film adaptation On November 25, 2004, in an interview with Acito, the Seattle Times newspaper reported that the rights to a film version of How I Paid for College had been secured by Columbia Pictures, less than a year after the novel's publication. Acito is quoted as saying "They promised me that the movie will keep the early '80s era, that they'll keep the bisexuality and that they will keep the musicals...As for the cast, we need kids who can sing, dance and act — so we probably don't even know who they are yet." As of 2008, no further details of the film's development have been publicized. Footnotes 2004 American novels 2000s LGBT novels Male bisexuality in fiction American young adult novels Novels set in New Jersey Novels set in New York City Novels set in Washington, D.C. Fiction set in the 1980s American LGBT novels Novels with bisexual themes 2004 debut novels Broadway Books books 2004 LGBT-related literary works