Spoiler alert.
A vivid, positive start, setting the scene well in beautiful Rome. The backdrop for a coming of age tale, a romance between people, with Italy, with the Italian language, lots of unanswered questions piquing the reader’s curiosity makes you want to read on. A promising start, an apparent romantic tale that I would normally enjoy, share with my friends and review positively.
This is indeed a well written book, I like the way the narrative is pushed on by switching the point of view from Alf to Letty and later to Frances, Letty’s mum. I like the way it deals with eating disorders, family rift, relationships with multi generational families and grief. I like the characters, I wanted them to find each other and live happily ever after.
But and this is a really big BUT for me and makes what could have been a 5 star review into a 2/3 star read, there is a rape scene, a horrid, misogynistic adult male who takes advantage of a naive young girl. This is a pivotal moment in the novel, Letty eventually is able to talk to someone about it, but the only resolve is to hope this man disappears and a short flippant description of him as a bully. This character is a rapist and he’s allowed to get away with it, with no attempt to call him out for what he is - a rapist. This is outrageous. While I appreciate many rapists do get away with their crimes, There was huge scope in this novel for the authour to chastise this character properly rather than brush him under the carpet in favour of “...and they all lived happily ever after”.
In a world of #metoo we need to encourage women to be able to speak up about rapists and call them to account sadly this book did the opposite and for me this is a serious, serious concern.
A vivid, positive start, setting the scene well in beautiful Rome. The backdrop for a coming of age tale, a romance between people, with Italy, with the Italian language, lots of unanswered questions piquing the reader’s curiosity makes you want to read on. A promising start, an apparent romantic tale that I would normally enjoy, share with my friends and review positively.
This is indeed a well written book, I like the way the narrative is pushed on by switching the point of view from Alf to Letty and later to Frances, Letty’s mum. I like the way it deals with eating disorders, family rift, relationships with multi generational families and grief. I like the characters, I wanted them to find each other and live happily ever after.
But and this is a really big BUT for me and makes what could have been a 5 star review into a 2/3 star read, there is a rape scene, a horrid, misogynistic adult male who takes advantage of a naive young girl. This is a pivotal moment in the novel, Letty eventually is able to talk to someone about it, but the only resolve is to hope this man disappears and a short flippant description of him as a bully. This character is a rapist and he’s allowed to get away with it, with no attempt to call him out for what he is - a rapist. This is outrageous. While I appreciate many rapists do get away with their crimes, There was huge scope in this novel for the authour to chastise this character properly rather than brush him under the carpet in favour of “...and they all lived happily ever after”.
In a world of #metoo we need to encourage women to be able to speak up about rapists and call them to account sadly this book did the opposite and for me this is a serious, serious concern.