The one book I didn’t finish in 2013…I think…
I think I might have been in the wrong frame of mind to read this book. I read most of it, but I just couldn’t do it. I was surprised as it had been recommended by two people who’s taste in books I respect – one is an English teacher and the other a librarian. The subject matter is pretty heavy and maybe it was just too much for me with my new baby and five year old…
(July 2013)
My friend Michelle recommended this book to me this summer, partly because she had read it and enjoyed it and partly because she thought the cover was beautiful!
It starts in 1962 when mysterious dying woman arrives at Pasquale’s family’s hotel in a remote little village that’s not quite in Cinque Terre. Pasquale falls in love with her and well, it’s not meant to be. Fast forward to a world dominated by reality tv shows and an elderly Italian man shows up at a studio lot trying to find the woman from his past.
I really enjoyed the book – I liked the overlapping stories and going back and forth between the 60s and the present as well as the absurdity of the story that made it even more believable – all those famous people behaving badly!
I started reading it thinking it was a chick-lit book, but sort of high level, and something just didn’t work when I was reading it. Well…that’s likely because it most certainly isn’t chick-lit and oh, the author is man. Which I discovered when I was done reading it.
I think I need to read it again…I read it pretty quickly and I’d like to go back and reread some of it!
