More Pretty Prose than Torrential
This author’s writing is considered raging and torrential? I’m not hearing it. Perhaps, if one’s a timid mouse or is one whose heart races while reading Agatha Christie. No. This book is well-written from a literary perspective. It has no real plot but manages to tease the listener along to believe that the mystery of the protagonist’s mother’s death is going to be solved. More accurately, this is a book about a woman piecing together the last days of her mother’s life, in trying to figure out who her mother really was, while questioning her own memories of the past. All within the book are depictions of piggish and brutally misogynistic Italian men. This isn’t the first book written by a female Italian author that describes the type of man most Western women would normally eschew. After listening to books like this, I can’t help but ponder why so many American women still harbor dreams of landing a tall, dark, and handsome Italian, when so many of their Italian sisters warn against it. If read as literature, this book is excellent. If read as an intense murder mystery, fuggetaboutit. This book could have been more exciting had the narrator livened up the read a bit. Although she has moments of dialog that shines, most of the narrative sections come across as wooden or robotic. I definitely prefer when Hillary Huber reads nonfiction, where she surprisingly brings much more vigor to her narration than she does with the particular piece of fiction.