Suzanne
Rating:
Review
As a big fan of the arts, every aspect of this book was a pleasure for me to read. Margot Harrington, our 29 year-old book conservator and protagonist, goes to Florence to help save its artistic treasures after the terrible flood in 1966. Unhappy because her life isn’t turning out like she imagined it would (and I ask, whose does?), she embarks on this mission to shake things up. It turns into an adventure on several levels as she works to help restore a convent’s valuable, waterlogged library of books, discovers a lost and rare Renaissance book of erotic art (“The Sixteen Pleasures”), and has an illicit affair with the older, still married Sandro Postiglione. I enjoyed reading about her work with antiquated books because it combines a love of great literature with a love of beautiful things, using your mind and working with your hands, artistically. I also enjoyed reading about her falling in love for the first time, the great works of art peppered throughout the story, the curious struggles of the convent in relation to men in the church, and the glimpse into the world of Sotheby’s. A real delight all around!
Best Line:
“He was a good-natured man, always pleased to be able to help; but he was also a man who enjoyed mystery and indirection, the sort of man who likes to suggest that the bottle of perfume he is giving a woman has been smuggled into the country when in fact it comes from the corner drugstore, or that the wine he orders in a restaurant is from a special cache kept specially for him when actually it’s the second-cheapest on the wine list.” (pg. 110)
Kim
Rating:
Review
Set in 1966, narrator Margot Harrington is a 29-year-old book conservator who is incredibly bored with her life, working in a library and still living at home with her father in Chicago. She decides to go to Italy when a flood threatens many great works of art, to offer her services at saving anything in the printed word category, and maybe find a more interesting direction for her life. Margot gets the adventure she hopes for, along with some lessons on convent life, political dealings with the Catholic Church, and how to best avoid men who wear boxers with
veritas (Latin for “Truth”) printed on them. I liked this story because it’s not something that I would usually read and it went in different directions than I expected, but I might have enjoyed it more if I knew more Italian words, or had ever been to Italy. There were plenty of small things that made me smile along the way, such as Margot’s initial deception of the women she meets on the train and their eventual friendship, her fascination with Sandro, and the various swipes taken at the French. I was expecting a more sensual book from the title, but it wasn’t that either. If you are into book conservation, or Italy, this is the story for you.
Best Line:
“Everyone wants a little romance.”
