Italian Lessons
Reviewed May 14, 2008.
Kensington Books, New York, 2007. 346 pages.
Starred Review
Sonderbooks Stand-out 2008: #4 Fiction
This is the second book by Peter Pezzelli that I've read. I found both books warm and wonderful. With both, I felt transported back to Italy.
In Italian Lessons, Carter Quinn, newly graduated from college, has fallen in love with a girl who lives in a village in Italy. He can't stop thinking about her. So he decides to spend his summer learning Italian and then go to find her.
Carter learns that a music professor often gives private Italian lessons. This professor, Giancarlo Rosa, has not been back to his childhood home in Italy for decades.
Italian Lessons covers the summer's lessons together, what Carter learns about Italy and about life, and then what he finds in Italy -- and how his discoveries touch Professor Rosa permanently, and allow him to finally make peace with his past.
This is a feel-good novel that is also thought-provoking, covering issues of life like forgiveness and destiny and opportunities.
I definitely need to look for more of Peter Pezzelli's novels. So far, they always leave me with a smile.