Never Call It Loving

Rating:
Summary: If dreams came true . . .
Review: It's every writer's dream--to be so good at your craft that someday, your favorite celebrity will ask or hire you to write his or her biography. But what happens when the fantasy comes to life, and expands and grows into something bigger than real life?

This is the story of one such dream come true. Eileen Ramsay is an extraordinarily talented author who takes us on a whirlwind ride through the high-flying world of opera. Make that Opera, as in 'the three tenors' kind of super mega-stars, and the nearly incomprehensible lifestyle barely known, or even imaginable, to the rest of us.

Fern Graham is forty-something, married, two college-age children, and a home in the Lake District of England, where she and her husband, Max, both live and work--as writers. Tucked away is the novel she's always wanted to write, but the money from shorter pieces--fiction as well as articles--helps to keep their middle-class lives on track, enabling the children to not only attend, but also to enjoy college life.

And then one otherwise ordinary day, Fern's agent calls from London. Pietro Petrungero, the world's ranking tenor, is interested in interviewing writers, and will perhaps then choose one of them to write his authorized biography. Until now, Fern has loved opera, but from a distance--literally as well as figuratively. She cannot usually afford more than one or two live performances in a year, and then, she sits in the 'Gods', those inexpensive seats in the highest rows in the theatre.

Her trip to London begins inauspiciously, and somewhat dejected, she returns home, confident that someone with more presence will be the chosen one. Life goes on.

Until the second phone call. It seems that Petrungero liked Fern's shyness, and has decided that she is the one he will entrust with his life story. She is whisked away to Italy, to meet the tenor and his family, to start gathering the myriad details that will guide her pen. In addition to Pietro's wife, Maria Josefa Conti, the renowned soprano, there is also his mother, Stella. Once the cast is assembled, the drama begins. For Pietro is not quite what the world thinks he is: a superstar Italian tenor. No, he was born in Scotland, as plain Peter Hamilton, a fact Stella had successfully hidden for years.

From Italy to New York to Scotland to Vienna, the world of Opera is a minor character in its own right, but one would not need to love, or even know much about it, in order to enjoy this sweeping story that could easily have come right off the front page of any international newspaper. If you've ever dreamed of living the jet-set life, here is a great look at it, from the limousine always at the ready to the 'handle-everything' super assitant, to splendid homes here and there around the world, ensuring a sense of home and continuity to support the constantly traveling artists.

As Fern uncovers more about her subject, he becomes two distinct persons to her: Pietro, the superstar who never quite forgets who he is and what he does, and Peter, the man who plays the piano for his own entertainment, likes to cook and go for quiet walks in the Vienna Woods.

Ms. Ramsay's name is a new one to most readers in the US; her first book, published by Walker nearly twenty years ago, was a Regency romance. After this heart-tugging novel, as up-to-the-minute as today's headlines, she will no longer be such an unfamiliar name to readers who want good, solid research and emotionally-satisfying writing. Be advised, however, that while there is a wonderful love story in it, Never Call it Loving is not really a 'romance' novel, and readers thinking it is, may be in for a disappointment. It's well worth the reading, however, and could as easily be enjoyed by men as by women readers. Brava, Eileen Ramsay!