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Bezig met laden... Rococo (2005)door Adriana Trigiani
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 Meld je aan bij LibraryThing om erachter te komen of je dit boek goed zult vinden. Op dit moment geen Discussie gesprekken over dit boek.  LyndaInOregon | Jul 21, 2020 |    ) Carole0220 | Mar 21, 2020 | Bartolomeo di Crespi is THE decorator in town, proprietor of “The House of B,” and a devout Italian-American Catholic. His dream is to renovate the Our Lady of Fatima parish church, creating an atmosphere of splendor, glory and sense of awe that will bring all the faithful closer to their God. This forms the basic plot line, but there’s a lot more going on. Trigiani has the usual cast of colorful characters, starting with B’s sister Toot (rhymes with “foot”), who is divorced and looking for companionship now that her boys are all out of the house. His fiancée (their parents betrothed them as babies) is Capri Mandelbaum; but they really are just going through the motions for her mother, Aurelia (who is financing the renovation as long as B does the job – and marries Capri). Throw in a nephew who has left college to hang drapes, a back-stabbing priest with his own secrets, an Irish artist/general contractor, a cousin who is bereft in her widowhood, a Mexican glass artist, and more relatives and parishioners than you can keep track of. It’s a loud, happy, emotional group. So what’s not to like? I am a fan of Trigiani’s but this one just doesn’t do it for me. I’m not sure if it’s because her main character, and narrator, is a man, or if it is the abysmal job done by Stephen Hoye reading it. Hoye’s delivery is just too slow and one-note. Unless he was using an English accent for a particular character, I had a hard time distinguishing who was speaking. Everyone just sounded too alike. He has a faint note of depression or ennui, too. I just didn’t connect with the Bartolomeo, so the entire book fell flat for me. I know there is an audio version narrated by Mario Cantone; I would think his delivery would be much better suited to Trigiani’s work. (  ) BookConcierge | Feb 17, 2016 | The interesting part of the story, to me, was B’s relationship with his extended family. I found him a likeable person, dedicated to his job. He tells the story well, with a light touch; I liked seeing his role as father-figure to his nephews, and best friend to his emotional sister Toot. I wondered where the story was going at first, but soon realised that the novel is more like a work of art, painting a picture of family life in a small village. I found it impossible to keep track of who was whom, and didn’t feel particularly attached to anyone, but then I know almost nothing about Italians living in the US. The blurb on the back calls this book a ‘comic masterpiece’. However the only parts I thought amusing were Toot’s malapropisms, but as B keeps correcting her, they didn’t have much humour value. I was mildly amused, too, at some recipes with vast quantities of ingredients, listed as serving 48. The least appealing part of the book is the regular descriptions of people’s houses which B has decorated; he goes into great deal about colour schemes and designs, most of which didn’t interest me in the slightest. Still, it makes pleasant enough light reading; no violence or horror, no bad language, and no detailed sex scenes. (  ) SueinCyprus | Jan 26, 2016 | ) sunnydrk | Sep 9, 2013 | geen besprekingen | voeg een bespreking toe
Onderscheidingen
New York Times bestselling author Adriana Trigiani, beloved by millions of readers around the world for her humor, warmth, and captivating storytelling in the Big Stone Gap trilogy and Lucia, Lucia, takes on love, lust, tricky family dynamics, and home decorating in Rococo, the uproarious tale of a small Italian American town poised for a makeover it never expected. Bartolomeo di Crespi is the acclaimed interior decorator of Our Lady of Fatima, New Jersey. To date, Bartolomeo has hand-selected every chandelier, sconce, and ottoman in OLOF, so when the renovation of the local church is scheduled, he assumes there is only one man for the job. From the dazzling shores of New Jersey to the legendary fabric houses of New York City, from the prickly purveyors of fine art in London to luscious Santa Margherita on the Mediterranean coast of Italy, Bartolomeo is on a mission to bring talent, sophistication, and his aesthetic vision to his hometown. Trigiani's glittering mosaic of small-town characters sparkles: Bartolomeo's hilarious sister, Toot, is in desperate need of a postdivorce transformation-thirteen years after the fact; The Benefactor, Aurelia Mandelbaum, the richest woman in New Jersey, has a lust for French interiors and a long-held hope that Bartolomeo will marry her myopic daughter, Capri; Father Porporino, the pastor with a secret, does his best to keep a lid on a simmering scandal; and Eydie Von Gunne, the chic international designer, steps in and changes the course of Bartolomeo's creative life, while his confidante, cousin Christina Menecola, awaits rescue from an inconsolable grief. Plaster of Paris, polished marble, and unbridled testosterone arrive in buckets when Bartolomeo recruits Rufus McSherry, a strapping, handsome artist, and Pedro Allercon, a stained-glass artisan, to work with him on the church's interior. Together, the three of them will do more than blow the dust off the old Fatima frescoes-they will turn the town upside down, challenge the faithful, and restore hope where there once was none. Brilliantly funny and as fanciful as flocked wallpaper, filled with glamorous locales from New Jersey to Europe, from Sunday Mass to the American Society of Interior Designers soiree at the Plaza Hotel, Rococo is Trigiani's masterpiece, a classic comedy with a heart of gold leaf. A veritable crazy quilt of quirky Italian Americans ... Trigiani weaves all these subplots together with wonderful ease; every seam is perfectly straight, every pleat in place. Bartolomeo would expect no less. A-. -- Entertainment Weekly Clever ... Creating characters so lively they bounce off the page and possessing a wit so subtle that even the best jokes seem effortless, Trigiani is a master storyteller. Equal parts sass and silliness, Rococo is an artfully designed tale with enough brio to make Frank Gehry proud.-- People From the Hardcover edition. Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden. |
LibraryThing-AuteurAdriana Trigiani is een LibraryThing auteur: een auteur die zijn persoonlijke bibliotheek toont op LibraryThing. Actuele discussiesGeenPopulaire omslagen
 Google Books — Bezig met laden...GenresDewey Decimale Classificatie (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999LC-classificatieWaarderingGemiddelde: (3.48)
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6
Trigiani does a fine job here of creating the brawling, boisterous di Crespi family, complete with Bartolomeo's malaprop-ridden sister, a series of romantic entanglements, and a resolution that makes up in warm fuzzies for what it may lack in originality or believability.
Don't expect great literature here. Just enjoy. (