'Taut, honed and surprising' Frances Mayes, author of Under the Tuscan Sun Thirtysomething New Yorker Lucy Stark leads a quiet, solitary life working for a bestselling - but remarkably untalented - writer. When he dies at a villa in Tuscany, Lucy flies to Italy to settle his affairs. What begins as a grim chore soon threatens her self-reliance and her very sense of reality. In Italian Fever, Valerie Martin evokes a modern woman's headlong tumble into a world where E.M.Forster's angels feared to tread. Smart and ... Read More
'Taut, honed and surprising' Frances Mayes, author of Under the Tuscan Sun Thirtysomething New Yorker Lucy Stark leads a quiet, solitary life working for a bestselling - but remarkably untalented - writer. When he dies at a villa in Tuscany, Lucy flies to Italy to settle his affairs. What begins as a grim chore soon threatens her self-reliance and her very sense of reality. In Italian Fever, Valerie Martin evokes a modern woman's headlong tumble into a world where E.M.Forster's angels feared to tread. Smart and sophisticated, this novel takes us on a journey from which we return, like Lucy, utterly changed. Read Less
Add this copy of Italian Fever to cart. $2.00, good condition, Sold by Stephen White Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Bradford, WEST YORKSHIRE, UNITED KINGDOM, published 2004 by W&N.
Add this copy of Italian Fever: a Novel to cart. $6.72, very good condition, Sold by Greener Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from London, UNITED KINGDOM, published 2005 by Phoenix.
Edition:
2005, Phoenix (an Imprint of The Orion Publishing Group Ltd )
Publisher:
Phoenix (an Imprint of The Orion Publishing Group Ltd )
Published:
05/19/2005
Language:
English
Alibris ID:
18890900557
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Add this copy of Italian Fever: a Novel to cart. $7.59, very good condition, Sold by Greener Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from London, UNITED KINGDOM, published 2000 by Random House USA Paperbacks.
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The premise of this book -- a woman travels to Italy to tend to the affairs of her deceased employer, a popular novelist of dubious ability who died under mysterious circumstances -- holds terrific potential for a compelling read, but ultimately I found Italian Fever a bit flat. Martin is certainly a skilled writer, and her descriptions of the Italian countryside, architecture, and art are vivid and enjoyable, but for me, the characters never really came alive. The plot also seemed two-dimensional -- mysteries were hinted at but their leads were never fully explored, passions were described but never fully savored. I wanted to be transported by this book to a mysterious villa in romantic Italy, but I never forgot that I was just reading about it. I think Valerie Martin may be capable of crafting a truly compelling novel, but she needs to dig deeper below the surface than she did here.
