Stay With Me, Lella (Prose Series 54)

Rating:
Summary: An engaging read to the very last page.
Review: I just finished Lella! It's a wonderful story, engaging to the very last sentence. I loved it! Marisa Labozzetta understands family dynamics so well! All the different generations are given such sympathetic treatments. It's so refreshing to read a book where there are no villains, no angels, just flesh and blood characters. It's especially gratifying to me that they are Italian-Americans, being one myself. So many stereotypes are floating around out there in mainstream fiction and in the movies! Most recently I guess there are some in the latest Spike Lee movie. I'm bracing myself. This is not a highly adorned book. It wastes not a single word. The plot moves swiftly, the characters are confidently drawn with each sure sentence. Males and females both get a fair shake. I'm so glad that this fine short-story-writer has come to this larger canvas so well prepared to do it justice! Brava!

Rating:
Summary: A novel not just for Italian-Americans
Review: This novel will appeal to those of us who love to read about the immigrant experience. Lella is a sympathetic character caught in the "ties that bind" (and that sometimes managed to strangle women of this generation who gave their all to their families). I especially liked how the plot revolved around secrets and the "don't-tell" attitude that often is such a part of Italian-American life.

Rating:
Summary: A novel not just for Italian-Americans
Review: This novel will appeal to those of us who love to read about the immigrant experience. Lella is a sympathetic character caught in the "ties that bind" (and that sometimes managed to strangle women of this generation who gave their all to their families). I especially liked how the plot revolved around secrets and the "don't-tell" attitude that often is such a part of Italian-American life.

Rating:
Summary: Absolute Emotional Greatness!!!
Review: Wow! What a true novel by Marisa Labozzetta. She made this book so real by just making it the way it was. Incredible characters make the novel a short but thirlling change to the usual short story of Marisa.Even mixed into the emotion was some humor which makes it a well rounded book for the New York Times to review. To Marisa: Good job on your extreme accomplishment and we hope for more!!!