The Shoemaker’s Wife: A meandering love story

After binging library books for a little while, I’ve come full circle and I’m trying to read through my collection of “eh, why not?” books that I’ve hoarded throughout the years. Some of these are books by authors I like or books I’ve heard a lot about, while many others are books that I thought seemed interesting enough to try. Which brings us here, to this review of The Shoemaker’s Wife by Adriana Trigiani.

Opening in the Italian Apls, Ciro and Enza are two young adolescents living in neighboring villages working through their individual trials. Fate seems to bring them together only to tear them apart when Ciro is sent off to America. Shortly after, Enza and her family suffer more trials and she, too, makes the journey to America. They bump into each other a handful of times, each time reminding the one how pleasant the find the other. But Enza is tired of waiting and hoping that Ciro will choose her, and Ciro, caught up in World War I, doesn’t realize how close he is to losing her forever.

First off, the synopsis of this book gave me a completely different impression than the book itself turned out to be. I tried to phrase mine a little better, because while it’s a slow love story, Ciro and Enza only see each other three times before she gives him an ultimatum to choose her or leave her alone. And their fourth meeting is his attempt to do just that. So while the individual characters are fairly well developed, their romance isn’t. I don’t know what Enza sees in Ciro that draws her to him, especially not when she bumps into him cavorting around with other women.

Trigiani’s writing is pleasant to read, putting the reader in the scene. However, I found this book to be really slow. The lovers didn’t meet until 70+ pages into the story. Most of the story was of them individually, not their romance. Additionally, I’m pretty sure the ages were off a time or two within the author’s time jumps. Finally, the last chapter of the book was a collection of snapshots from the lives of side characters, bits of story that didn’t really matter and that I didn’t really care about. I understand that she probably didn’t want to end on a sad note, but the final 30 pages didn’t really do justice to the rest of the story.

Although I didn’t particularly enjoy the book, I know the author is quite popular and many people do enjoy her. As I’m paying a little more attention to the things that attract me in a book, I’m finding that “fast-paced” is a big part of it. Slower, more meandering stories have to work a lot harder to keep my attention. And when it’s attempting to be more of a true-to-life story, as I felt this one was, I’m much more critical of the pieces that don’t fit that. But if you enjoy slow, winding stories that cover a lifetime, this could be a book for you.

Lost Roses

After the success of Lilac Girls (which I’ve still never read), Martha Hall Kelly has been a name I’m familiar with. So, obviously, when an advanced copy of her new book was available at work, I grabbed it to read (I know it sounds like I grab any and all copies of books, but if you only knew how many books I don’t take from work…).

Lost Roses is a prequel to Lilac Girls, focusing on Eliza Ferriday and her dear friend, Sofya Streshnayva. Set during World War I and the Russian Revolution, Eliza is an American woman who throws herself into helping the displaced Russian nobility forced from their homes during the overthrow of the Tsar and the governing class. Despite the pressures of society, Eliza chooses humanity over perceptions.

Sofya is part of the Russian nobility, cousin to the Tsar’s family. But by choosing to return to Russia during the unrest, Sofya and her family find themselves in mortal danger. The danger only gets worse when Sofya hires a local girl, Varinka, to help out with her son, Max. Suddenly taken captive and separated from Max, Sofya is determined to escape and be reunited with her stolen son. But as time passes, Sofya realizes she’s going to need some help. Hard work doesn’t seem to be enough–she needs Eliza.

Lost Roses is told in from three points of view, Eliza’s, Sofya’s, and Varinka’s. Because of this, it’s a little slow to start, as the author must establish three different characters before diving into the meat of the story. Personally, I think it might have worked better to tell the story from third person, instead of jumping back and forth between varying first person viewpoints.

Otherwise, it was an enjoyable historical fiction story about several strong women overcoming tragedy and trial to build themselves a new life. Varinka’s character is different than Eliza and Sofya, and not just in the obvious ways of age and social position. Her character is very much living in gray areas. Does she purposefully bring danger to Sofya’s family, or is it a naive accident? And what about the choices she makes afterward, keeping Sofya’s son and trying to be his mother? Is that a normal course of events, or was she really trying to steal Sofya’s son? Varinka is young, just 14 when we first meet her in the story, and even then she’s been through a lot, so like Eliza and Sofya, she is also just trying to build a better life for herself, even if she does it by taking advantage of other people’s tragedy. Her character gives readers a lot to think about. As I read her parts of the story, I was torn between wanting the best for her, and disliking her because she was obviously in opposition to our heroes.

It’s clear that Kelley did her research, bringing both the characters and the places to life. Kelly draws from real people and events to create her stories, which makes them that much more compelling.

I’m interested now to read Lilac girls and see if Kelley is one of those historical fiction authors that creates a compelling saga across vast sweeps of time. I’m always in need of another good historical fiction series.