Lucia, Lucia

Rating:
Summary: Hats off to Strength!
Review: Strength you ask? Yes! Lucia Lucia is a compelling book depicting the strengths of self, independence, womanhood, family, friendship, loyalties, love and honor, betrayal and sorrow.

Though another reader found this book to be predictable, I did not! I kept hoping for a fairy tail ending ... not that the book did not have a fairy tail ending ... just one that is diferent than what one would classify as a fairy tail.

I listened to it as an audio, and was enchanted from the very beginning ... and lo and behold, the enchantment lasted the entire book!

Rating:
Summary: Loved it! Loved it!
Review: This is a charming story about an Italian-American woman and her family set during the 1950's. Lucia Sartori narrates her tale in flashback fashion to a young woman who lives in her apartment building in present day Greenwich Village. And what a tale it is! Lucia was a working woman most of her life but remained unmarried and lived at home, first as the only daughter helping to take care of four older brothers, and then later as caretaker for her widowed mother. Along the way, Lucia has her share of male love interests but her love of family and career always come first in her life.

If you enjoy reading stories about traditional Italian-American families you will love this book! Being Italian-American myself I thought Ms. Trigiani did an excellent job in truthfully portraying how it feels to live in a culture/household where the opinions and needs of the females usually always take a backseat to those of the males. But the novel is also filled with a great deal of respect for the importance of religion and traditions in most Italian families. Not to mention there are some mouth-watering recipes included for some authentic Italian foods and the book also provides a colorful look inside the fashion world of the fifties