I rarely write a review right after I've read the book, but in this case I really need to.
I've read Trigiani's novels, Brava Valentine, and Very Valentine, and loved them for several reasons. The tale, of course, but the humor, and the serious introspection that accompanied them. Those two books told a story that was easy to digest, in contrast to this last novel, The Shoemaker's Wife.
I'm not saying that this wasn't a wonderful story, in-and-of-itself, but after traversing through 470 pages of maudlin reminiscing, characters' dying scenes, one after another; characters dredging back memories to the point of, "Just get me to the next paragraph without another memory throwing me into melancholy, please!"
Skimming, off and on, and especially at the end, drove me through the heart wrenching past, was unavoidable. I hate having to skim! But do I need to hear the same story repeated, again?
Adriana Trigiani can tell a compelling story, in detail after detail, but I ran out of patience with detail, and Kleenex, by the time I reached the end. In my emotional state, I was ready to sail the book to the far corners of Italy.."Go home!", I yelled...wherever the hell home is.
I know there is more to say about this book, but at the moment I'm dog tired. After spending a lifetime with these characters who yearned for what could never be - wanting the future, no, wanting the past; wanting that job, wanting that person in their life.......no, we have to live in the present, no it's time to go home....What country? What town? What city?
Now, I'm going to bed.
I laughed, I cried (quite a few times!!) but most of all I was compelled to see what would happen with Ciro and Enza! Their love story is one for the ages and this is not a novel I will soon forget.
ReplyDeleteSome of the descriptions she gives are unnecessary and at times I felt as if she was just writing what she was thinking instead of presenting it in a more "storytelling" manner, but overall this novel was wonderful and I am recommending it to anyone who appreciates a story of family, loss, love, and most of all, remembering where you came from.
Ceska,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comments on this novel. I appreciate them, as well as those who may come here to read this blog.
I know a ton of people are loving this story, a huge fan base of Adriana Trigiani's, and I applaud Adriana's accomplishment in writing this story - Over a 20 year period of love and labor was incorporated into it. As with you, I was compelled to see these characters to the end...
It's hard for me to recommend any kind of book, unless I really know the kind of reader I'm talking to. I read and write from an emotional POV, and I'm not one who likes to dredge through a story to find goodness. The good points may be there, but writing style is foremost in what I look for, in that there isn't a story that hasn't been written at least a dozen times or more, at one time or another. We all may read the same book, but we all see it so differently.
Thanks, again,
Kathy