Reviews

L'America by Martha McPhee

snowmaiden's review

challenging emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

 It took me a while to get my bearings with this book, which weaves in and out of time in the same way that Ishiguro's novels do. This is a very simple story on the surface, about an American girl and Italian boy who meet while vacationing in Greece in 1982. They try very hard for years to make their relationship work, without ever completely succeeding. It is, as I said, a simple love story, but it's a good one, and anyone who has had a love that didn't quite work out should be able to relate to all the ups and downs.

However, it's much more than just a story of a tragic love. Along the way we learn all kinds of things about Italian food (as well as the food of many other cultures), about daily life in Italy and New York City in the 80's and 90's, and also about what life on a commune in upstate New York is really like. McPhee's writing is sumptuous, if never straightforward. I think the book this reminded me of the most was Crescent, by Diana Abu-Jaber. Four years later, I still haven't completely recovered from that book, and I imagine I'll end up feeling the same way about this one. 

megmcardle's review

4.0

On the surface L'America is a love story, but it ends up being about class and national identity, and how both are hard to get around even for love. The writing style is rich and evocative, and the fact that we know from the start that it is not a "love conquers all" story lets you observe more closely the roots of their conflict. The two main characters are Beth, an American who grew up on a semi-commune in rural Pennsylvania (with some polish added in NY, NY), and Cesare, who is the privileged son of a wealthy family from Northern Italy. Neither are without flaw, and at some point you realize that the only thing that really kept the two apart was that they are both a bit selfish. But their rapturous meeting and their long drawn-out breakup are both told in fragments and time skips, interwoven with vignettes that illustrate their essential natures. You know that they are not meant to be. One element that struck me was the lost chances, which are especially poignant as we find out fairly early on that Beth dies in the the Towers on September 11. One character points out that only in this kind of out-of-scale tragedy do your loved ones get to see you die over and over again on TV. Both Beth and Cesare have a fascination for their beloved's culture (Beth ends up writing Italian cookbooks), but cannot get over their own background and expectations. Still their sometimes obsessive passion for each other ends up making you wistful and wishing they had taken the chance. That love still defined a huge part of their lives, even if it was ultimately untenable.

leleroulant's review

1.0

I wanted to like this book, but it didn't seem to go anywhere. You know the ending from the beginning. I kept reading thinking that there must be something more...there wasn't.