Francesco's Song by C. M. Furio

Ever wonder what it was like to live in Italy before and during WWII?  This book gives the best idea I've come across, probably because the author based it all on her own family's experiences and accounts of other people they knew personally. 

Francesco's Song is only lightly fictionalized, so the truth shines through about the author's father, Francesco, and her mother, Francesca.  They were children near Bari in Italy's south when Mussolini and his black shirted Fascists came to power.

The brainwashing of the children began early, and the Fascists worked hard to build a cult around their leader, Benito Mussolini.  It is interesting to see that the older people were often more skeptical of the political bombast.

By 1929, when Italy was having its love affair with Il Duce, Francesco was eight years old.

Because the story follows her parents, and Italy, from 1928 through to the post war era, we get to see how the children grew up to see the harsh reality of their leaders' militarism.  They were left with great skepticism of any political leadership and any -ism.

Francesco is the main person we follow from a Fascism inculcated childhood in a household run most of the time by his mother, a white widow, as the neighbors called a woman whose husband spent most of the year abroad to earn a living.

So many men in town had left.  Some had gone to South America, to cities in Argentina and Brazil, but Francesco's father had gone, like so many others, to New York City.

We go with Francesco to young adulthood when he falls in love with Francesca.  That is when we pick up her story, and learn that she struggles more under the paternalistic traditions of Italy, and especially of southern Italy.  As her mother says:

You'll get married and you'll have a family.  What do you need school for?

Marriage comes young for a woman in that sort of society.

At eighteen years of age, Francesca had already received marriage proposals from several suitors who had sent go-betweens to her mother's house.

Then comes Francesco's required military service.  Like all clever young men, he chose his branch of the military just before getting drafted, so he served in the prestigious Carabinieri Reali. 

That brought him to Dobrovna, Yugoslavia, where fought and suffered from the violence, with traces of that suffering trailing him all his life long.  The life of the soldier is well described.  The author makes good use of her father's letters to his fidanzata in this section of the book.

The post war period is interesting for the cultural frustration Francesco suffered when he returned to the very socially and religiously repressive south of Italy.  Like all people who've spent time away from a repressive society, or who enjoyed some relief from it, like Francesca during the difficult war years, it was impossible to be happy back in that environment.

Once away from the small universe of his childhood, his eyes had been opened and now he was not so quick to accept what had once seemed carved in stone.  This was true especially regarding the church...

That's when the choice came to go either to the north of Italy, or abroad.  Since both of them had fathers and even a sibling in the United States already for years, their emigration to America was simpler than trying to find a good job anywhere in Italy. 

The description of how looking for work in Italy operated in the 1950s  rings true with my experiences when living there in the 1980s.  Exams, competitions, recommendations, friends of friends needed, political juice...  What I hear from friends in Italy, the situation has still not improved much, and it still pushes talented young Italian to emigrate.

The story is told in the classic omniscient narrative style, but it is done with a light touch, and at times the author limits the point of view of the narration to just one character.  It is a wonderful choice for this story.  It lets us get to know so many interesting people intimately.

Don't worry if you are not up on your WWII history.  The author fills the reader in on what he needs to know along the way.  The result is a very personal story that also has a wide appeal. 

Francesco and Francesca's story is theirs, and it is also the story of thousands of other Italians who chose to leave Italy after WWII.  If you have relatives among the Italian diaspora of that era and age, reading this book is a good way of connecting with their experiences.

 

From the book's description:

Set amidst the drama of Fascist Italy, Francesco’s Song is the gripping story of one man’s struggle to survive.  Based on family history, C.M. Furio tells the poignant story of young Francesco as he grows up in the small seaside town of Mola di Bari.  The saga of birth, love and death in rural southern Italy unfolds as Italy becomes involved in the cataclysm of world events.  

Francesco’s carefree youth ends when the oratory of Mussolini and the false sense of patriotism seduces him and he joins the military police of the Italian armed forces, the Carabinieri Reali.  Stationed in Yugoslavia and later in Milan, everything he treasures is threatened as he confronts events during the war and witnesses firsthand the destruction of his homeland.  

Fleeing from the occupying Nazi, Francesco is sheltered by sympathizers of a growing resistance movement.  He enters the darkest period of his life where his only dream is to be reunited with his family and the love of his life, Francesca.

Based on letters and war-time documents found in the author’s family home Francesco’s Song is a moving portrayal of the struggles of the Italian people during the war years and the customs that bound them.  It is the story of an immigrant who never lost the love for his homeland and who valued family above all else.

Here is a direct link to the book at Amazon.com:

 

Mola di Bari, Francesco's hometown is seen here from above, today:

 

Voices in the Dark by Lindsay Townsend

This romantic suspense novel draws on Italy's World War II past to explain some mysteries in the present.  The two main protagonists, the man and woman who come to find they are a perfect match, are opera singers:  a bass, and a mezzo-soprano.

There are other interesting characters, all in Italy, where the woman goes to compete in a voice competition that she hopes will launch her career.  Florence and Milan play major parts in the story, one being where the woman's ancestors live, and the latter being where the man lives near his family.

The book is written in British-English and the female protagonist is Anglo-Italian.  There are some scanning errors that are sure to be weeded out soon, as the e-book was created from the print edition that was first released in 1995.  The narrative voice is 3rd person limited, putting us in the head of only one character per section.

The story moves back and forth between 1944 and 1995 with ease and skill.  And the author expertly weaves together the various strands of the story, and all her characters, to unravel a mystery from the past, that helps bring two lonely people together in the present. There is one heated sex scene, but nothing explicit.

This is a romantic suspense novel, so expect an investigation of a mystery, danger and romance.  There are bad guys and good guys, and it is not really clear until the end which are which.  The Italian characters and Italian setting should appeal to Italophiles, and both ring true.  

From the book's description:

There has always been a mystery in Julia Rochfort's family.  Who killed her grandfather Guy, a member of the Italian resistance movement in World War Two?  When Julia travels to Florence to compete in a singing competition, she meets Roberto Padovano, already an established opera star, and they discover that they have a lot more in common than simple attraction.

Here is a direct link to the book at Amazon.com:

This review is by Candida Martinelli, of Candida Martinelli's Italophile Site, the author of the crime-romance novel THE HAGUE, a traditional murder mystery novel AN EXTRA VIRGIN PRESSING MURDER, and the young-adult/adult mystery novel series THE VIOLET STRANGE MYSTERIES the first book of which is VIOLET'S PROBLEM.

Tempesta's Dream by Vincent B. "Chip" LoCoco

The subtitle of Tempesta's Dream is A Story of Love, Friendship and Opera.  The Tempesta of the title is Giovanni Tempesta, a twenty-five-year-old Italian man living in 1979 in Milan, Italy.  Giovanni dreams of becoming a world-class opera tenor, but he earns a living as a clerk by day, and an opera-café singer by night.

The Prologue explains how Giovanni came to discover opera:  through his father, a consummate romantic and opera aficionado.  Franco Tempesta explains to his young son how opera is romance and raw emotion put to poetry and music.  Opera also touches how the man teaches his son about love.

When you fall in love, Giovanni, always respect that trust the girl places in you.  You would only expect the same from her.  For it is from trust, that true love finds its roots.  And love is what gives our life poetry.

 Puccini is Giovanni Tempesta's favorite composer, so I will feature images of Puccini opera posters with the review .

Without realizing it, Franco rears his son to be something of a throwback to an earlier idea of male-female relations.  That formal, respectful attitude to women, love, and relationships was out of place even in 1979.  It reminded me a bit of the 1999 film Blast from the Past, which was about a young man who grew up since the 1960s with his mother and father in a bomb shelter, and only entered the world in 1999. 

Giovanni has the same sweetness and intensity about him, so that we can almost forgive his following his love-at-first-sight woman home.  Giovanni is, as the author says:

...a passionate romantic living in a very unromantic world.

And when Giovanni serenades the woman:

He was a throwback to a lady's old romantic notion of how a man should act.

Falling in love pushes Giovanni to pursue his dream with more conviction.  With ups and downs, lessons and sudden lesions, successes and failures, we follow Giovanni's progress to his ultimate success.  The satisfying, joyous ending has a truly operatic feel to it, musically, situationally and emotionally.  It is a big-opera finish.

A few years back there was a novel written for young adults that had a father teaching his daughter about the history of philosophy.  Many adults read the book for the easy-to-grasp explanations.  Tempesta's Dream has the same feel to it, but for a history of opera.  The book's coyness about sex makes it a suitable book for both adults and young-adults.  The opera history and entertaining anecdotes that Giovanni's teacher, Alfredo, shares with his eager student make learning easy for the reader, too. 

The author brings opera to life on the page, which he achieves through the use of the libretto texts, and rich descriptions of the music and of the emotions the music creates.  What I would love to see is a Spotify playlist created by the author to accompany the book.  When reading the book and a piece of music is mentioned in the text, one could then click on a music player and hear the music.  It would be a lovely accompaniment to the text, which is about the music, after all.

Perhaps after reading the book and listening to the music, the readers will be like Giovanni:

Giovanni always had music running through his head.  Moments he experienced in life recalled for him scenes from operas.

A small part of the story takes place in the city of New Orleans, in the southern U.S. state of Louisiana, the author's hometown.  The flavor of the unique city comes through in the locations, food, history, people and music included in the story.  

The large Italian-American (Sicilian-American) community in New Orleans may be a surprise to some readers.  The immigrants richly contributed to the local culture.  It was just one of the reasons I accepted a review-copy of this book.

Here is the book's trailer:

Italian culture and Italian-American culture are often intertwined with a Catholic up-bringing.  I applaud the author for including Giovanni's faith in the book, and treating it as an aspect of his character.  Too many authors are afraid that if they allow their character's faith to appear in a book, the book will be labeled a "Christian Novel". 

Giovanni believes in God and in destiny.  Destiny for Giovanni is not un-Catholic "fate".  Destiny for Giovanni is what happens when we use to the utmost all the gifts God has given us.  Giovanni feels that God has given him a voice that moves people, so he feels compelled to develop that gift to its utmost.  It is one of the things that fuels Giovanni's ambition.

The book is attractively presented, well-edited, and offered in various formats, including an audio book.  The omniscient narrative prose is not always the smoothest it could be, and the dialog can be stilted at times, but the directness of the prose suits direct and single-minded Giovanni Tempesta, and in the end, this is Giovanni's story. 

True to the opera it honors, the book is full of strong emotions, heart, tears, love, ambition, friendship and an underlying decency.  I enjoyed it and it had me turning to my opera recordings, which is always a good thing!

From the book's description (some spoilers):

Tempesta's Dream is a novel by New Orleans writer, Vincent B. "Chip" LoCoco.  It is the story of an aspiring opera singer coming of age in Milan; a tender and moving love story; a testament to the bonds of friendship; and, at its core, a tribute to the beauty, majesty and miracle of opera.

Giovanni Tempesta always dreamed of becoming an opera tenor and one day singing from the stage of the La Scala Opera House in his hometown of Milan, Italy.  But with no real training, his dream has little chance for fulfillment . . .  One day, he meets and immediately falls in love with Isabella Monterone, a dark-haired beauty, whose father, a very rich and powerful Milanese Judge, refuses to allow his daughter to date a penniless musician . . .  At the lowest part of his life, Giovanni comes upon the Casa di Riposo, a rest home for musicians established by the great opera composer, Giuseppe Verdi . . .  It is at the Casa Verdi that Giovanni meets Alfredo del Monte, a blind, retired opera singer with a secretive past who gradually becomes his mentor . . .  Could Alfredo be the one person who could assist Giovanni in finding the break he needs? Or is Giovanni destined to be on the cusp of reaching his life long dream, only to find failure? . . .  Tempesta's Dream, at its core, is an Italian opera love story.  The author tells the story simply and swiftly with an ending that is both an emotional and poignant moment of both "amicizia e amore" (friendship and love.)

Here are direct links to the book at Amazon.com as paperback, e-book and audiobook:

Here is the book's audiobook trailer, which includes a sample of the audiobook:

 

Please visit the author's website and Facebook page,

I can't end a review of a book about opera without one opera video, so here is a music video of a piece that plays an important roll in the book, sung by someone who plays an even more important role.

This review is by Candida Martinelli, of Candida Martinelli's Italophile Site, and the author of the cozy-murder-mystery novel AN EXTRA VIRGIN PRESSING MURDER, and the young-adult/adult mystery novel series THE VIOLET STRANGE MYSTERIES the first book of which is VIOLET'S PROBLEM.

Mister Gregory by Sveva Casati Modignani

Mister Gregory is translated from the Italian.  It is a fictional biography of a man, from conception to his eighty-fifth year.  His life story is not told chronologically, but shifting through time, sometimes introducing us to people in his late in his life, and much later explaining later how they came to be in his life. 

By the end of the book, the rich details create the impression that the man actually lives, and that we might even know him.  The graceful prose reminds me of Alberto Moravia's spare, simple prose that reads almost like poetry.  The narrator knows all, and shares enough of Mr. Gregory's life with us, so we know the man, in the end.

The man has is mother's beauty and aristocratic manner.  But he is also in love with his mother.  His possessive, jealous love for his mother stops him ever having a healthy love affair with a woman.  He flits from one attachment to another, and only very late in life does he come to terms with this.

...I did everything I could be become rich and powerful just to show her that I was worth more than he.  I loved my mother desperately and maybe I never had a happy relationship with a woman because every time I fell in love, I looked for her in them and no one was as perfect as she.

It is Mr. Gregory's view of women, gained through his view of his mother, that lets him see things many other Italian men do not see, such as their limited roles and the abuse they suffer not just in body, but in spirit, too.

He thought about the countless young and beautiful women in his town whose husbands mistreated them.  How many of them had died, worn out from childbearing, or at the hands of their husbands?

Very late in life he comes to understand how his mother escaped that fate:

...there are women who devote themselves entirely to their families, their husbands and children, and give up cultivating their femininity.  Mother rebelled against that paradigm...

While well-written and richly imagined, I never really connected with the main character, perhaps because I am not a man.  I suspect that I am not the target audience for this book.  With all the details of Mr. Gregory's major female conquests included in the story, some quite suggestive, I think men might find the story more interesting than I did. 

The female author, through Mr. Gregory, even offers this advice to men:

To get girls he had figured out that all you had to do was talk little, the bare minimum, and listen much, without ever passing judgment.

Another difficulty I had with the book was the relationship of eighty-five-year-old Mr. Gregory and a fifty-year-old woman, a relationship that started long before.  A thirty-plus year difference is disturbing in so many ways.  And when Mr. Gregory first admits to the woman that he is wealthy, and THEN asks her to marry him...my creepy sensors were ringing alarm bells, of which the author seemed to be oblivious.

The author is prolific, but this seems to be the first of her books to be translated into English.  It is an excellent translation.  The book is well-edited and professionally presented.  The author's style comes through clearly, and it is a pleasant prose style in both English and Italian.  If you read Italian, you might enjoy some of the author's books. 

From the book's description (which contains many, many spoilers):

Gregorio Caccialupi is taking stock of his long, intense life.  His earliest memories date back to the 1930s in Polesine, a backwater town on the Po delta.  His childhood there was riddled with abject poverty, illness, and toil.  When tuberculosis strikes his beautiful mother, who has removed herself from the harsh reality of the world around her, his destiny takes a sudden turn.  He is an adolescent when he leaves Polesine and sets off for America in search of fortune.

Years later, as a man of endless resources and the object of much admiration, he racks up successes, losses, and women who try, and fail, to win his heart:  Florencia, his first love; Nostalgia, his wife; and Erminia, his current flame.  Over the years, he comes to be known as Mister Gregory, the rich magnate behind a large Italian hotel chain, a person of influence, and a man to be feared.  Then, a bad investment causes him to lose everything.  His path seems ill fated until a chance meeting and a surprise revelation lead Mister Gregory, now an old man, to take back the reins of his life and embark on a new adventure.

Mister Gregory is published by Sperling & Kupfer, an imprint of Mondadori.  These links are to the Italian edition.  Then English edition's sales like is provided below, to Amazon.com.

Direct link to the book's page at S&K 

Direct link to the author's page at S&K

Direct link to the book at Mondadori's Store

Here are direct links to the book at Amazon.com:

Please visit the author's Facebook page and blog.

This review is by Candida Martinelli, of Candida Martinelli's Italophile Site, and the author of the cozy-murder-mystery novel AN EXTRA VIRGIN PRESSING MURDER, and the young-adult/adult mystery novel series THE VIOLET STRANGE MYSTERIES the first book of which is VIOLET'S PROBLEM.

Tomorrow or Never by Maria Martin

When you purchase the book Tomorrow or Never, you get three historical novels in one, which together make up the saga of five years in the life of a young woman living in unusual times.  The 700+ pages are divided into three parts, three phases in the life of the protagonist, Vitessa, an ambitious, clever young woman from the poorest region of Italy, who comes to adulthood just as Mussolini comes to power in Italy in the 1930s.

Mussolini leading his black-shirted thugs

Part One is set in Fasinella, a rural village in the Basilicata (Lucania) region of southern Italy.  We meet Vitessa and her friends, family and fellow villagers.  Mussolini's socialists are in power, encouraging little-Mussolinis to dominate and exploit small communities all over Italy.  That happens in Fasinella, too, which is home to several internal detainees, political prisoners, for several years.

Fasinella is described as:

Encircled by the craggy hills and plummeting ravines of the deep south of Italy, Fasinella was largely cut off from the wider world, and there seemed no other future besides the withering cycle of poverty, hardship and hunger that had endured for centuries.  An ancestor from the 1530s would find little different in the 1930s.

Matera, Basilicata

Part Two takes place in Rome, the busy political capital of Italy.  Vitessa has escaped Fasinella and is enjoying some freedom to learn and live and love without restrictions.  Mussolini's empire-building dreams, and alliance with Fascist Germany and Spain intrude on Vitessa's life in unexpected ways.  In one way the wars bring her more freedom, and in another way they rob her of her first love.

The title of the book, Tomorrow or Never, comes from the southern dialect word for "tomorrow":  crai.  The word, in popular usage, has come to mean two things:  "the next day" and "never".  It is a bit like the Italian word for "tomorrow", "domani", and like the Spanish word "manana".  When the word is repeated a few times in sequence, it signifies something that will probably never come to pass:  domani, domani, domani, or manana, manana, manana.

A young woman at a desk in Rome, Italy, in the 1930s

Part Three of the saga is set in the business capital of Italy, Milan.  Vitessa continues to forge an independent life for herself, and to learn and to grow.  Mussolini's plans for Italy create havoc for the country's businesses, who are torn between doing business with the country's allies and the country's potential future enemies.  Vitessa is torn between two loves and two possible futures, too.

The author uses Vitessa's brother to show what it was like to have a devoted follower of Mussolini in one's household.  As the oldest male member of the family, he holds sway over the women in the household much the way ancient Roman heads of family held sway even in questions of life and death over people in his home.  This is no coincidence.  Mussolini looked to Augustus, the first Roman Emperor, for inspiration:  the monumental building programs, the wars of expansion, the laws, the police....

Mussolini's stadium, built along ancient Roman lines

I accepted a review copy of this book because it was set in a controversial era in Italy's history.  Just like the other European countries, Italy has information and misinformation circulating about the Mussolini era, because many former supporters of the dictator have difficulty accepting any criticisms of their hero. 

The truth is that Mussolini was a militant socialist (a Fascist), an egomaniacal sociopath, a dictator, a leader who authorized mass-murder of unarmed peasants in Ethiopia and Somalia in order to steal land and resources, an oppressor of women and children and Jews, and the instigator of the torture and murder of Italians by his secret police and his black-shirted thugs.  Unlike Mussolini's supporters, I do not believe that economic growth can excuse any of these things.

The Italy of Mussolini

The author presents the politics for what it is, repressive and war-mongering, and concentrates most of the story on Vitessa's life.  The three parts of the book read like a TV mini-series.  The five most formative years in Vitessa's life are described, against the colorful and dangerous backdrop.  There is a large cast of characters whom we follow through the years.  Fact and fiction combine in this novel to entertaining effect.

The third-person narration allows us inside the minds of many of the characters.  The author teases us at times with forebodings and hints of things to come.  The writing is polished and at times prosaic.  The story moves along at a quick pace, but not so quick that we lose the sense of place and time. 

The story is all Vitessa's, a young woman who shines with intelligence, drive, a thirst for knowledge, goodness and a wicked sense of humor.  A series of mentors take Vitessa under their wing to teach and guide her way to success.  Misogynistic repression is not the only sort of repression Vitessa must face.  The bigotries in Italy against those from the south of the country, meridionali, are just as strong, and just as limiting.

A trade show display in Milan, Italy, in the 1930s

We get inside the mind of Italy's many exiles, those exiled for political reasons, and those exiled for economic reasons:

I am glad I will be leaving Italy.  It costs too much to lover her.

Sadly, what was true during Mussolini's repression is also true for many of the emigrants from Italy today, due to economic and political stagnation, as well as corruption and continuing bigotries.

The author provides a wonderful list of books for further reading, and some Book Group discussion points, as well.  My only reservation is the ending, which I do not feel wraps up all the story lines I wanted to see wrapped up.  Perhaps the author wishes to leave things up to our imagining?  Or perhaps there is another book on the way about the later life of Vitessa? 

If you are interested in this era in Italy's history, and would like to follow the life of an ambitious, intelligent young woman through a mini-series of events, I highly recommend Tomorrow or Never.

Italian Fascist propaganda poster advocating the fire bombing of London during WWII

From the book's description:

1930s Fascist Italy was a particularly oppressive society for women.  Vitessa, a young woman from the poverty-stricken south with ideas ahead of her time, refuses to let the triple evils of tradition, prejudice and Fascism crush her dream of a better life.

Will the chance arrival of a political exile from the affluent north help to change her destiny?  Will a desperate deception be a help or a hindrance to her plans?  Will the struggle to find her own way in life be made even more difficult as Mussolini leads the country towards war?

Fascist Italian Girls' Choir, singing, something 1930s Italian woman were allowed to do besides having babies

Here is a direct link to the book at Amazon.com

Please visit the author's website.

Here is 3 minutes of Lucania/Basilicata with many images from the era described in this book, accompanied by the classic emigrant's song by Domenico Modugno:  Amara Terra Mia (My Bitter Homeland).

This review is by Candida Martinelli, of Candida Martinelli's Italophile Site, and the author of the cozy-murder-mystery novel AN EXTRA VIRGIN PRESSING MURDER, and the young-adult/adult mystery novel series THE VIOLET STRANGE MYSTERIES the first book of which is VIOLET'S PROBLEM.

An American Girl in Italy by Aubrie Dionne

This clean-contemporary-romance set in Italy shares its title with a very famous photograph:  American Girl in Italy by Ruth Orkin.

The female protagonist in the story struts around Italy just like the woman in the photograph, without out a glance at the attractive men around her who might show an interest. 

There is one man in particular who is interested in Carly, the male protagonist, Michelangelo, a walking, talking incarnation of the artist Michelangelo's famous marble David.

An American Girl in Italy starts off quickly.  We get the genre's required "cute-meet" between U.S. American Carly, and Italian Michelangelo, where Carly falls head-over-heels, literally, before:

...the tall, dark and gorgeous hottie who must think she was the biggest idiot ever to land in Italy.

Like all contemporary romances, there is a physical attraction between the gorgeous duo right away.  The author alternates the point-of-view between Carly, a buttoned-down workaholic, and Michelangelo Ricci, a single-minded young man who is devoted to his family and to rescuing the family's wine business.

Right away, Michelangelo has a strange effect on Carly, or perhaps it is the jet-lag:

Somewhere between American and Italy she'd lost her brain filter, and her mind.

Italy has its effect on Carly, too.  She is charmed by the timelessness of the countryside and towns.  But for Carly, love is a no-go area, that leads only to a temporary distraction, a passing pleasure, followed by heartache.

Carly is an oboist in an orchestra that is on tour in Italy.  We get a glimpse inside the world of classical music and traveling orchestras.  It all rings true, and it is an interesting and novel way of having a character travel around Italy.  Michelangelo is the group's tour guide.

While the book hits all the buttons for a clean, contemporary romance novel set in Italy, I have some reservations about the book.  First off:  Carly.

Carly is an unpleasant woman:  a workaholic, snappy and sarcastic, an ageist and size-ist, self-obsessed and superficial, snobby and unfriendly.  Michelangelo is courteous, responsible, with a social conscience, and he is gallant to everyone. 

I had a very difficult time seeing these two as a couple.  If you recognize yourself in Carly, you might like that she ends up with Michelangelo.  Frankly, I thought Michelangelo could do a lot better, and I hoped he would! 

Another reservation I had may have to do with the fact that I received the book as a review-copy, and the final edits may not have been done yet.  I noticed factual errors and some typos and format issues.  I'm assuming these will be sorted out before the book's publication.

One last issue was with the sex scene.  Yes, Carly breaks down and sleeps with Michelangelo.  I think most readers of this review can deal with that "spoiler".  Actually, there is no sex scene, since this is a clean-romance.  We leave the gorgeous couple on the bed, then we return to the bedroom in the morning.  The problem for me is that the "morning after" doesn't feel right, emotionally or psychologically.

I have the feeling that the book is almost there, almost ready to join the popular genre of woman-finds-love-in-Italy.  The female protagonist just needs some character-surgery, and the book needs one more edit to tweak it into shape.  But perhaps I'm being too critical.  This is an inexpensive e-book, so you can always afford to take the chance and decide for yourself!

From the book's description:

An Italian paradise is the last thing she wants… but the one thing she needs!

Surely any girl would kill for the chance to tour Italy’s most famous cities for the summer?  To experience the warmth of the Tuscan sun, the culinary delights of the pizzerias and cafés and to stroll along the cobbled streets of the City of Love itself…

Any girl apart from ambitious oboist Carly Davis that is!  For her, the Easthampton Civic Symphony’s latest European tour is one massive inconvenience.  She can’t even put her smart-phone down long enough to snap a picture of the Coliseum.

Only, there’s one Italian attraction that Carly hadn’t quite expected to be a part of the tourist route…

Tour guide Michelangelo is as dark and delicious as Carly’s morning espresso.  And when she needs a few lessons in the language of love to land her an important gig, he’s a more than capable tutor.

But with her promising career back in Boston, can Carly really afford to lose her heart in Italy?

An American Girl in Italy is published by HarperImpuse, a digital romance publishing arm of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.

HarperImpulse is an exciting new range of romance fiction brought to you from the women’s fiction team at HarperCollins. Our aim is to break new talent from debut authors and import the hottest trends from the US, bringing you the very best in romance. Whether that is through short reads for your mobile phone or epic sagas that span the generations we want to proudly publish romance fiction that gets everybody talking. - See more at: http://www.harperimpulseromance.com/about-us/#sthash.wiSaRGNk.dpuf

HarperImpulse is an exciting new range of romance fiction brought to you from the women’s fiction team at HarperCollins. Our aim is to break new talent from debut authors and import the hottest trends from the US, bringing you the very best in romance. Whether that is through short reads for your mobile phone or epic sagas that span the generations we want to proudly publish romance fiction that gets everybody talking. - See more at: http://www.harperimpulseromance.com/about-us/#sthash.wiSaRGNk.dpuf

HarperImpulse is an exciting new range of romance fiction brought to you from the women’s fiction team at HarperCollins. Our aim is to break new talent from debut authors and import the hottest trends from the US, bringing you the very best in romance. Whether that is through short reads for your mobile phone or epic sagas that span the generations we want to proudly publish romance fiction that gets everybody talking. - See more at: http://www.harperimpulseromance.com/about-us/#sthash.wiSaRGNk.dpuf

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This review is by Candida Martinelli, of Candida Martinelli's Italophile Site, and the author of the cozy-murder-mystery novel AN EXTRA VIRGIN PRESSING MURDER, and the young-adult/adult mystery novel series THE VIOLET STRANGE MYSTERIES the first book of which is VIOLET'S PROBLEM.

A Comedy of Murders by George Herman

I hesitate to call A Comedy of Murders a "mystery novel", like the subtitle says, A Novel of Mystery.  Once I label it a "historical mystery" because it is set in the Italian Rensaissance, many people quickly imagine the book to be "An Agatha-Christie set in the past", and that would be a huge mistake.  A Comedy of Murders is just what the title says.  It is a comedy in the style of Commedia dell'arte, and there are lots of murders.  It is a well-written comic historical novel for literate adults.

Commedia dell'arte is an Italian invention from circa 1500.  It is an improvised theatrical style that relies on stock characters and the performers' quick wit and practiced skills to create a successful show, a show that is, ideally, adapted to the audience.  In Italian there are other names for the style, including Commedia a braccio, meaning off-the-cuff-theater, or improvised theater.

 

 

A Commedia dell'arte troupe

Troupes of traveling performers tailored standard story-lines to appeal to the local audience, touching on local politics, scandals, and prejudices.  In A Comedy of Murders, a traveling Commedia dell'arte troupe, I comici buffoni, is central to the story.  Their plays mirror the story that occurs in the court of Milan, until they finally arrive at the court, when they become major players in the novel.

In the words of the troupe's leader, the actors, comedians, saw their role just as today's satirists see it:

We commedians see with the pauper's eye.  Life to us is absurd, irrational, totally and completely mad.  The world is an asylum where the inmates keep the warders in their place. ...

It is our mission to reveal that the honored banker is a thief and an embezzeler.  The bemedalled hero is hallow and crumbles before the shadow of a threat, or he's a butcher who considers a human life of no more value than the sweat of his horse.

In our world the lecher is impotent, and the reformer a drunk.  The priest is a seducer and the benevolent prince a petty tyrant.  And despite this view of mankind and his world, we make people laugh at it.

Some of the characteristic costumes for the stock characters

Early in the novel, the reader meets the actors who make up I comici buffoni, who portray the popular and timeless stock characters:  the pauper, the scheming servants, the young lovers, the older lovers and musicians, and the pompous doctor, soldier and rich man.

Then the reader meets a cast-of-hundreds who people this novel.  Some of the characters are historical and imagined by the author, other characters are richly imagined fictional characters.  While reading the book, I made good use of the list of characters at the end of the book to keep the principle characters straight!

 

Cecilia Gallerani, painted by Leonardo, both central characters in the book

A Comedy of Murder is a richly researched and richly imagined visit to that amazing time of city-states run by princes, and explorations of our planet and the sciences, and a church more concerned with rich coffers than rich souls, and wars fueled by personal vendettas, and personal vendettas fueled by wars.  We meet the Duke of Milan, the French King, the Pope, minor city-state princes, courtiers and other hangers-on.  The reader does not need to be an expert on these times or people; the author informatively guides us through them.

Have you ever seen Richard Lester's film The Three Musketeers?  While reading A Comedy of Murders, I found myself playing a film of the story in my mind, in the style of Lester's filming of the classic historical adventure tale.  Both tales are told as bawdy, silly, historical farce, in which real people from the past are imagined as flawed, corrupt, pompous idiots lost in circumstances beyond their control.

Here is the official trailer of the 1974 movie masterpiece, to give you an idea of the tone of A Comedy of Murders:

There are some characters who rise above others in their moral fortitude, and one of those is the artist-architect Leonardo da Vinci.  The author weaves Leonardo's life and work into the story, and from about page ninety, Leonardo plays a large role in the story.  A Comedy of Murders is actually the first novel in a series of comic novels that feature Leonardo da Vinci and his friend, the fictional Niccolo de Pavia, a diminutive scholar and courtier.

There are eight books in the series:

1. A Comedy of Murders
2. The Tears of the Madonna
3. The Florentine Mourners
4. The Necromancer
5. The Toys of War
6. The Arno Serpent
7. Cardinal Virtues
8. Leonardo's Labyrinth (last in the series, series ends)

Some marketer christened the books Renaissance Mysteries.  Renaissance is right, but mystery is stretching it.  These are historical comedies for adults set during the height of the Italian Renaissance, full of courts, castles, dungeons, torture, gossip, courtesans, rivalries, out-sized egos, rampant libidos, political scheming, erudite learning, monumental building projects, and the creation of timeless art.

 

 

Leonardo before his patron in Milan, Duke Ludovico Sforza, Il Moro

A few times I lost the plot due to the use of historical words, but I quickly caught up and was able to enrich my vocabulary.  In the 1994 edition that I read, I did find some confusing uses of personal pronouns, a few typos, some odd paragraphing, some hard to follow action scenes, and an inconsistent italicizing of non-English words, none of which detracted from the story.

I would advise a reader to sit back and savor the author's masterful recreation of that raucous, vibrant, violent, cruel and creative era.  He is especially knowledgeable about Renaissance warfare, and Leonard da Vinci's work.  Do not expect a "mystery novel".  Be open to the comic historical novel, and let history wash over you.  The author makes us a visitor to a Renaissance city-state's court, and puts us in the middle of all the nonsense.

The author ends the book with the words of one of the actors in the novel.  He states the satirists' code, so to speak, which could well be from the author's mouth, or from any satirist working today:

As long as there is life, my dear friends, laughter will be the weapon of we who mock it even as we struggle to understand it.

 

 

A Commedia dell'arte troupe

From the book's description:

The court of the Duke of Milan is in turmoil. In this autumn of 1498 there are threats from within and without. The French are preparing to march across the Alps and claim the dukedom with armed force. The Venetians to the east and the army of the Borgia pope to the south would also be happy to grab their slice when the conditions are right. They only await a signal. ...

As the dead body count multiplies and invasion threatens, it is Leonardo and Niccolo who attempt to untangle the motives and methods of the assassinations, vendettas, and simple murders.  Due to Leonardo's anatomy studies and inventions, including a flying machine, the two amateurs draw conclusions that could spell their own doom unless the artist and his young friend can use their wits to reveal the killers even as their enemies close in.

Leonardo's fresco plays a part in A Comedy of Murders

A Comedy of Murders is available second-hand from Better World Books.

Direct link A Comedy of Murders at BWB

You can also purchase A Comedy of Murders second-hand via Amazon.com and as a Kindle e-book.  Here are links to the editions available at Amazon.com.

Here are direct links to the books in the series at Amazon.com, all available as Kindle e-books:

George Herman's novel Carnival of Saints was published before A Comedy of Murder.  It is a fictional account of the birth of the improvisational Italian theatrical form Commedia dell'arte.  Here is the book's official description:

The year is 1502, and Italy is ablaze with artistic radiance, sexual corruption, and political intrigue. Into this seething cauldron comes a vagabond of improbable erudition and outrageous appearance who calls himself Harlequin. With the help of an aging, resourceful whore named Colombina, Harlequin gathers together a band of fugitives, misfits and thieves and invents a new form of people's theater -- commedia dell'arte.

The book is available second-hand from Better World Books.

Direct link to Carnival of Saints

If you wish to read more about Commedia dell'arte and to see depictions of the various stock characters, I have a page dedicated to it at my Italophiles.com website (Candida Martinelli's Italophile Site).

Direct link to my Commedia dell'arte page

The Borgia Pope as he was, not as Jeremy Irons played him recently on TV

Visit the author's website.


This review is by Candida Martinelli, of Candida Martinelli's Italophile Site, and the author of the cozy-murder-mystery novel AN EXTRA VIRGIN PRESSING MURDER, and the young-adult/adult mystery novel series THE VIOLET STRANGE MYSTERIES the first book of which is VIOLET'S PROBLEM.