A review by megmcardle
L'America by Martha McPhee

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.