Christopher Castellani
All This Talk of Love is Christopher Castellani’s third novel about the Grasso family of Wilmington, Delaware. This book takes place in the late 20th-early 21st century. Antonio and Maddalena are aging. Their children are on their own. Antonio still runs the restaurant that has been his dream.
At her son’s confirmation party, daughter Prima announces that she and her husband will be treating the family to a trip to Italy, so the elder Grassos can visit their home town, Santa Cecelia, once more. All are enthused about the trip except for Maddalena and younger son Frankie. Frankie is living in Boston, struggling to finish his PhD dissertation. He is involved in an affair with his dissertation adviser and is reluctant to leave his work, even for a short while. Maddalena has her own reasons not to want to visit Santa Cecelia. And Maddalena’s reluctance is the basis of this novel.
This book stands well on its own, although I think it might have been helpful to read the two previous books. However I did enjoy this. My only complaint is that at times it seemed a bit disjointed-bouncing back and forth between Boston and Wilmington. Also there are some unexplained gaps in time that left me mildly confused for a bit. Otherwise, this is a very good book.
Many thanks once again to LibraryThing and its Early Reviewer program for sending me this book.
In USA:
Published in softcover-Algonquin Books-2013
La Bibliofille 