Thursday, March 29, 2018

The Italian Party review

The Italian Party by Christina Lynch
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Publication date: March 20, 2018
Source: Publisher for an honest review
Genre: Historical Fiction

Description:


A delicious and sharply funny page-turner about "innocent" Americans abroad in 1950s Siena, Italy. Newly married, Scottie and Michael are seduced by Tuscany's famous beauty. But the secrets they are keeping from each other force them beneath the splendid surface to a more complex view of ltaly, America and each other.

When Scottie's Italian teacher--a teenager with secrets of his own--disappears, her search for him leads her to discover other, darker truths about herself, her husband and her country. Michael's dedication to saving the world from communism crumbles as he begins to see that he is a pawn in a much different game. Driven apart by lies, Michael and Scottie must find their way through a maze of history, memory, hate and love to a new kind of complicated truth.

Half glamorous fun, half an examination of America's role in the world, and filled with sun-dappled pasta lunches, prosecco, charming spies and horse racing, The Italian Party is a smart pleasure.

My Take:

While I found the description of The Italian Party to be accurate, I felt it was only partly reflective of the novel as a whole. It is the story of Scottie and Michael's time in Italy as newlyweds. It is also an examination of personalities and relationships. This novel is cleverly and deceptively a much deeper novel than it appears to be.

There are lovely descriptions of the scenery of the city and the countryside, as well as tense scenes of mystery and danger -- the novel somehow covers all the bases. The reader gets to learn about this young couple and their backgrounds, their history and watch them navigate this new and in many ways unfamiliar world they find themselves in.

Every time I attempt to explain some aspect of the novel that I really liked, I end up giving away something important and have to delete that paragraph. I was so pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed The Italian Party and how quickly I was pulled into the story. Once I started reading, I couldn't put the book down. This was such an enjoyable read! The Italian Party is the perfect book for a bit of excitement, espionage, beautiful scenery, local color, world history and just plain fun. I would highly recommend it!





About the Author:

Christina Lynch’s picaresque journey includes chapters in Chicago and at Harvard, where she was an editor on the Harvard Lampoon. She was the Milan correspondent for W magazine and Women’s Wear Daily, and disappeared for four years in Tuscany. In L.A. she was on the writing staff of Unhappily Ever After; Encore, Encore; The Dead Zone and Wildfire. She now lives in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. She is the co-author of two novels under the pen name Magnus Flyte. She teaches at College of the Sequoias. The Italian Party is her debut novel under her own name.

Website: http://christinalynchwriter.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/christinalynchauthor
Twitter: https://twitter.com/clynchwriter




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