As with The Last Song of Dusk, this book had its own feel and pace from another part of the world. The small southern Italian village of Montepuccio from 1870's to the recent past is the setting. The story begins with a man coming to this town for revenge after serving a prison sentence. He leaves behind a son, Rocco, who grows up to pillage and terrorize the area and when he dies, leaves Carmela and her brothers to fend for themselves. They open a tobacco shop, work at becoming respectable citizens, and have families of their own. The story is of ongoing generations struggling to survive, to find their place in the world, to find happiness and love. This just gave a glimpse into those struggles in one Italian family.
As a child of immigrants, the moment when Carmela is not let into America for health reasons was poignant. It reminded me that not everyone who tried to immigrate made it, and today the numbers of those wanting to immigrate, but being turned back are much greater.
I don't regret listening to this, it just wasn't my favorites. Something about the raw passions and despair that is also in a lot of Latvian literature just didn't provide the most satisfying read. I don't mind emotion and hard times, and the next book I'll describe - Summer Guest - has plenty of both, but the latter is presented in a way that speaks to me. Maybe it's an American - European thing. I later found out that this is an award winning French book in translation.
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