Wednesday, September 29, 2010

The Sixteen Pleasures

The Sixteen Pleasures by  Robert Hellenga was a little beat-up find with scuffed corners and yellowed pages, looking just yummy enough to add to my armful.  And once I saw that it was about Italy and saving famous art pieces from the last hundreds of years of Italian civilization after a flood in 1960's Florence...

The Sixteen Pleasures: A NovelSo!  There's a movement in Florence to rescue Italian national treasures from permanent flood damage, calling folks from all over the world to arms, although instead of using guns and ammo, they bring with them love of Italy, hope and a sense of adventure.  One of these "mud angels" is Margot Harrington, in love with Italy, not so in love with her life in humdrum America.  She recalls her younger days in Italy, cliff-diving, falling in lust, living dangerously in complete abandon, the whole world before her - and since then has become a book conservator for Newberry, dreaming of what once was and most of all, could have been before her mother died, catapulting her into a totally different life of normal schools, normal jobs and that lingering want of something more.  So she hears about the flood, is off to Italy in no time flat to offer her conservator-skills to a good cause and fun time, and ... well, does she find what she's looking for?  What exactly is that?  You gotta read to find out!

I didn't fall completely in love with this book, in the same way that I had hoped to fall in love with it (and Italy) on reading it.  There just wasn't enough magic and romance for me.  Strange, considering it is technically a romance of this young woman's life in Florence, the men she meets, the experiences saving Italy's artwork, all the while dropping some Italian for us monolingual (and German bilingual) folks to spice up the narrative.  But I did not fall in love.  The book was good, however, and I really do recommend it for some relatively light reading, an almost coming-of-age novel for the 20-35ish young woman (I consider that an in-between age -- she's not a Carrie, she's not the cast of Friends, she's not Julia Roberts in Eat Pray Love).  And this is also an in-between kind of book - it's not erotica, that's for sure, it's not just a romance, it's more about this woman's affair with Italy, hoping for something she doesn't quite understand, wanting a life she is still not sure she wants.  In this way, we can all relate, right?  Margot is a believable, if not terribly interesting narrator - we believe and enjoy whatever's going on with her, and root for her to get over that dude and start her real Italian romance.

All in all, pretty good.  So I'm glad I picked it up, it kept me reading and I loved the Italian culture bits.  Let me tell you, I also saw Under the Tuscan Sun on the shelf where I picked this up and was very tempted.  But at the last second I decided to impose some restrictions on myself, so maybe another time for that one!

In the meantime, I'm up and running again with Voyager!  I accept your congratulations, thank you.  It's just as good as I remember the books being, and I think after this I'll just continue with Drums.  Why not, right?  In other news, I am also beginning the star-system!  So look forward to starred reviews in future and also retroactively - I just need a couple minutes to rate the books I've reviewed here in the past, it shouldn't take long.  I think this would give you guys a better idea of the review and also encourage me to formulate my own thoughts on why I liked/disliked a book.  Hope it's useful!

Peace out.

2 comments:

  1. I've read this book! Still have it, actually. But of course it's been years and I can't remember much about it. From what I remember of my reaction, mine was kind of like yours--the book is good but not great. I guess if it had been great I would have remembered more about it. :)

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  2. Yup - good but not great. I wasn't expecting a masterpiece, but it was a fun, quick read. Thanks for commenting, Kathy! If you have any ideas/book recommendations for the blog, as always, feel free to let me know. :)

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