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Jess Walter has captured both the Italian coastline in 60's and present day Hollywood perfectly in this (excuse the obvious word) beautiful story of an Italian boy who falls in love with an American actress. It is an epic story that follows their lives from the few days they met in Italy to their final days.
Walters way with words will transport you to a small fishing village in Italy like only a trip there could do. You will feel like you are on the Mediterranean Sea drinking wine and spooning u ...more
Walters way with words will transport you to a small fishing village in Italy like only a trip there could do. You will feel like you are on the Mediterranean Sea drinking wine and spooning u ...more
Imagine yourself in a small Italian fishing village, the sky so bright and wide, the Mediterranean Sea so vibrantly blue, and you're about to have your dearest, most heart-felt dream manifest into existence. You, a poor and very young hotel owner, young enough to still have dreams, to aspire to greater heights. Along comes an American - but not just any American. This is a tall and beautiful young blonde woman who is a movie actress.
She has been told she has stomach cancer. Rather than go to Sw ...more
She has been told she has stomach cancer. Rather than go to Sw ...more
This is a good story about an actress, an Italian man who helped her when she was in trouble at an earlier stage her life, a writer who wants to sell his story, and a movie director who ultimately has connections with all of them. The plot combines disparate people and their stories, bring them together in an interesting and intriguing manner.
This man knits scenes together like nobody's business. Thematic shades of Kundera, as the NYT review suggested. He also captured the Ligurian coast, and somehow managed to wedge pathetic, fictional little Porto Vergogna into the stunning Cinque Terre, suspending all disbelief (kinda wish the cover didn't display a photo of Manarola -- too beautiful and terribly misleading, really). Disparate time periods, wildly disparate characters, all very smoothly blended.
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Even for my lower standards set for a "fun summer book" this was largely a snooze.
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Nov 05, 2012
Alisa
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