Rating: 
Summary: entertaining and erotic
Review:
Sometimes the "livin' is easy," and so is the readin' found in Valerie Martin's sixth novel Italian Fever. This entertainingly erotic romp through Tuscany is buttressed with all the requisite divertissement: an illicit doomed-from-the-start affair, a mysterious death, plus a ghost.
When mega selling, meagerly talented author DV is found dead, his assistant, Lucy Stark, is dispatched to a small Tuscan village to oversee the novelist's interment and sift through his belongings. DV's sudden demise is a puzzle, as is the whereabouts of Catherine Bultman, an artist with whom he shared a remote, gloomy villa.
Lucy hopes to find the remaining chapters of DV's latest manuscript despite a disdain of his work so great that "when confronted by her employer's contributions to the world of letters," she experiences "a steady elevation of blood pressure and an involuntary clenching of the jaw that made her face ache."
Upon her arrival in Rome she is met by a representative of DV's Italian publisher - Massimo Compitelli who is, of course, blessed with the "wonderfully tan skin and thick black hair one associates with the country."
At first apparently bored and disinterested, Massimo later warms to Lucy, eventually becoming her advocate and protector. He even nurses her through a bout with an unexplainable illness that leaves her feverish and weak. But, never fear, not so weak that she cannot couple with an ardent Massimo who has tendered a sensuous massage, and then vowed that they will try hard not to break their small bed.
The farmhouse in which Lucy is staying was once owned by the Cini family, a group she considers sinister. Unable to find the actual site of or salient details concerning DV's death, she grows increasingly uneasy, disturbed by scratching sounds, and terrified by a voice she believes to be that of DV.
But these mysteries take second place to her fascination with Massimo. Once her business is complete, she agrees to meet her Italian lothario in Rome for a final two days. It is there that, thanks to the younger Cini, she finds Catherine who is "all light - golden hair, hazel eyes, pale, creamy skin." Massimo is, of course, enchanted.
Torn by jealousy and filled with desire, Lucy determines to make her last evening with her lover one "which was to burn her image ineradicably into the landscape of Massimo's memory." A decision leaving Lucy sadder, wiser, and with a greater degree of self-awareness. She was not, as she had thought "a practical, principled woman who was perfectly content to look on the folly of others with distant sympathy, but a foolish, impressionable creature, as much a prey to longings and cravings, as eager to justify her own impulsive behavior with an appeal to the sovereignty of passion over reason, as anyone else."
Passion not probity is what Ms. Martin's latest is all about, which is what may make Italian Fever contagious.
Rating: 
Summary: Sexy and gothic!
Review: Having read Love: Short Stories, I couldn't imagine better writing from Valerie Martin. Boy, was I wrong! Italian Fever is one of the best pieces of modern literature I have ever read! The novel is a mixture of romance, mystery and gothic magic realism.In Italian Fever, Lucy Stark is the assistant of an untalented author. But after the author dies in an accident, Stark goes to Italy to sort out some of her former boss's problems. Having experienced culture, beauty and art in Italy, Stark finds it difficult not to be mesmerized with the place. She, however, gets more than what she bargains for. What I love most about this novel is Martin's description of Rome. It felt as though I was there, experiencing the art and culture in the story. This is literature at its finest! I can't recommend this novel enough!
Rating:
Summary: I have lived in Rome and Lucy's reaction to Italy is real!
Review: I don't know which I enjoyed more: Martin's prose or being tranported back to Italy, my favorite place on earth. No one has written the definitive romance about this country, and I hope no one does because the literary possibilities are endless. The whole point of reading pleasure is to be able to identify with the character/story/setting which this novel did for me so beautifully. While vacationing in Tuscany I succumbed to the flu...I had an affair with a married man who lived in Rome with his Australian wife, and I remember how frustrating it is to listen to the Italians speak their rapid-fire language and only being able to catch a word here or there. I loved it that Lucy and Antonio "discovered" each other and that she was smart enough to leave. I only hope that Ms. Martin will find it necessary to set her next novel in Venice.
Rating:
Summary: Ghost Story
Review: I have just completed "Italian Fever" by Valerie Martin and enjoyed it tremendously. Lucy Stark goes to Italy to tidy up the affairs of a minor writer who died in an accident. While there she meets some intriguing characters, has an affair, learns more about the kind of person she really is, and is memsmerized by the beauty of Italy and the art of its famous painters and sculptors. Her descriptions are portrayed in succinct yet beautiful prose which engrosses the reader's attention. I especially loved her reaction and description of Piero della Francesca's fresco, The Resurection, which she comments on to her Italian escort while on a business trip. This novel has romance, self-revelation, mystery, ghosts, and the flavor of Italy all rolled into one. I heartily recommend it to any reader of quality fiction.
Rating: 
Summary: Italian Fever
Review: This book could as well have been called "Pittsburg Fever" or "Tucson Fever" for all the relation it had to Italy. Surely there are ghosts there, and eccentric families, which were the only 2 things about this book that gave it any need to be placed in Italy. I believe the author gave it that name in order to seduce people into buying it, thinking they would be reading a story that related to that fascinating country or that had some unusual plot or theme that would not be believable in another locale. This book was basically a story about a woman with no sense at all who spent her whole time in Italy, expenses paid, holed up in an uninteresting villa with a married man who virtually ignored her when they were not in the villa. Not much suspense, not much imagination, not much to recommend it. One star is one too many. Don't waste your time or believe any of the good press about this one. Valerie Martin should be ashamed.
Rating: 
Summary: Insalata Mista
Review: Though I was prepared to read a good novel that would bring back memories of my visits to Italy, I was quickly bored with the main character, Lucy Stark, and her self-centered yearnings and obsessions. This character clearly hadn't lived much, raised a child, lived through a famine, or experienced much suffering. Her main posture is one of feeling superior, but for no apparent reason. I was fed up with her in a hurry, and skimmed much of the book without losing anything significant. The best parts were observations about art and travelogue-like descriptions of scenes in Rome. The rest of it was the usual blather about love and lust, affairs with romantic Italians (how stereotyped and insulting!), and a "mystery" that amounted to a hill of beans. I advise looking at the beautiful Titian on the cover of the book and then quietly putting it back on the shelf. Want to read a book about affairs? Try Anna Karenina. That's next on my list.
Rating:
Summary: What was this book really about?
Review: Well...reviewers for Amazon seemed to love or hate this novel, for the most part. I feel rather indifferent about it. Truthfully, I would probably never have finished it if I had actual work to do at my job! Lucy Stark is a writer's assistant whose employer, writing abroad, suddenly turns up dead. She is left the task of putting his affairs in order and looking for the rest of a manuscript he has been working on. What starts out as a possible murder mystery quickly devolves into simply a diary of an American's time spent in Italy, replete with art appreciation, affairs and lots of cappucino consumption. This novel didn't seem to follow its initial intentions or promises, although when the end finally comes, everything is wrapped up to some satisfaction. Had the book simply been to detail an American's experience abroad and what she learned about herself along the way, I would have understood how to read it. As it is, it seems the author did a little of this, a little of that, but I cannot complain about the quality of the language and the flow of the writing. My main feeling is that this book did not AFFECT me, the way I feel a good novel should. I probably won't think about it again.
Rating:
Summary: What was this book really about?
Review: Well...reviewers for Amazon seemed to love or hate this novel, for the most part. I feel rather indifferent about it. Truthfully, I would probably never have finished it if I had actual work to do at my job! Lucy Stark is a writer's assistant whose employer, writing abroad, suddenly turns up dead. She is left the task of putting his affairs in order and looking for the rest of a manuscript he has been working on. What starts out as a possible murder mystery quickly devolves into simply a diary of an American's time spent in Italy, replete with art appreciation, affairs and lots of cappucino consumption. This novel didn't seem to follow its initial intentions or promises, although when the end finally comes, everything is wrapped up to some satisfaction. Had the book simply been to detail an American's experience abroad and what she learned about herself along the way, I would have understood how to read it. As it is, it seems the author did a little of this, a little of that, but I cannot complain about the quality of the language and the flow of the writing. My main feeling is that this book did not AFFECT me, the way I feel a good novel should. I probably won't think about it again.
Rating:
Summary: What book's flap copy didn't say
Review: Why oh why can't I remember to ignore bookjacket flap copy? I might have appreciated "Italian Fever" more if it hadn't been touted as a murder mystery. I might have savored the love story for what it was, instead of wondering why it took up such a large portion of the book, and why the murder was left to the end to be explained away in an undramatic and therefore unsatisfying twist of perception. I might not have minded the ease with which Lucy abandons her "sleuthing" to follow her married lover to Roma, even though she hadn't found much out. I might not have been so surprised by her unexplained expertise and awe of Italian art, with which she impresses Italians, and tries to prove that despite her cowardly cynicism about D.V.'s commerical art, she is moved only by real beauty. Is this what the jacket flap copy should have explained, that the story is about a suspicious American who comes to Italy, the land of love, and learns that if she wasn't so suspicious she would be able to understand the truth--that things can be sadder or more pathetic than she ever imagined? The reason the flap copy was confusing might have been that copywriters only read first chapters. Or it could be that they are really good at glossing over a story's problems.
Rating:
Summary: What book's flap copy didn't say
Review: Why oh why can't I remember to ignore bookjacket flap copy? I might have appreciated "Italian Fever" more if it hadn't been touted as a murder mystery. I might have savored the love story for what it was, instead of wondering why it took up such a large portion of the book, and why the murder was left to the end to be explained away in an undramatic and therefore unsatisfying twist of perception. I might not have minded the ease with which Lucy abandons her "sleuthing" to follow her married lover to Roma, even though she hadn't found much out. I might not have been so surprised by her unexplained expertise and awe of Italian art, with which she impresses Italians, and tries to prove that despite her cowardly cynicism about D.V.'s commerical art, she is moved only by real beauty. Is this what the jacket flap copy should have explained, that the story is about a suspicious American who comes to Italy, the land of love, and learns that if she wasn't so suspicious she would be able to understand the truth--that things can be sadder or more pathetic than she ever imagined? The reason the flap copy was confusing might have been that copywriters only read first chapters. Or it could be that they are really good at glossing over a story's problems.
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