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Tiffany Corvi 's Reviews > One Italian Summer
One Italian Summer
by
by
Oye vey... this was "cute" in much the same way I'd tell someone, "bless your heart." I'm going to have spoilers ahead - I'll warn you when they're coming..
One Italian Summer has the makings of a great novel. It features a protagonist that will be relatable to women who feel like they made vows before they really understood the weight of them, or who are feeling lost in a marriage or life they aren't sure is right for them anymore. I'm pretty sure this is half the population of married women, so there will be a lot of readers that will relate to Katy. I loved the quote, "We built a life that perhaps we were too young to live."
It also features a mother who doubles as a best friend.
It's written with beautiful descriptions of place and scenery, delicious meals you can almost taste, and paints a vivid picture of the coast of Italy. I actually visited Italy on my own honeymoon, and I can attest that some of the places described - Naples especially - was exactly what I experienced. Serle's writing nails the place and essence of Italy.
Serle's novel also attempts to explore how one might move on from loss, which can be a sad and beautiful story to explore. But I'm not sure it did this part as beautifully. We get told about Katy's love for her mother, more times than necessary to get the point even, but I never felt any emotion towards the loss at all. She jumped from losing her mother to wanting to divorce her husband in the same paragraph, and it came off feeling immature and petulant instead of emotional and heartbreaking.
In the same respect, I felt much of the story was rushed. I thought it could have used more time to develop the relationships between the characters. (Spoiler coming!) Katy meets another hotel guest one morning, winds up eating breakfast with him, and then kisses him a day (maybe two?) later. She doesn't even know the guy. Look, I'm passing no judgment on her cheating, though I do not condone it, but it just didn't fit her character at all. I'm always down for a good, passionate kiss, but her circumstance was a little weird for the timing, and I just couldn't get into it at all.
Alright, a few more Spoilers ahead....
I was put off by a few other things... First, the portrayal of the husband, Eric. In the beginning chapters, he is described in a way that seems icky. Like he's intolerable and Katy can't seem to remember why she ever loved him. Was it merely because her mother approved of him? Look, I don't like icky husbands, so I was like, "Go Katy, go to Italy and get away from him and find yourself. But THEN, at the end... she totally takes him back like she didn't feel any of that at all? Like, oh, wait, my mother didn't just accept you, she actually thought you were exactly what I needed, so OK, I'll love you after all. It just didn't sit well with me. I also don't like people who cannot give others space when they ask for it - so when he shows up in Italy and breaks that boundary, I wasn't impressed.
Second, there's a part where Katy gives Nika advice about investing in Apple and Starbucks so that in the future they will have enough money to financially survive. But then I'm like... you're standing there with Carol, your mother who dies from cancer and didn't survive it because she caught it too late... why don't you warn her so she can catch it in time and not die?? I mean, that's what I would have done. Yo, Mom, go see a doctor when you're 55 and get screened for cancer!!
If I didn't think too deeply about all the pieces that were still missing to make this a great story - which it definitely had the potential to be - then I'd say this was a really enjoyable read. And for the most part it was. I got through it in a day because the writing was easy and flowed and I wanted to find out how on earth Katy was with her mother Carol 30 years in the past. But I wasn't much impressed with that aspect of it either. It just fit too nicely into a little package and I don't think it explored what it set out to do at all - which is to explore how people move on after loss. "You will learn" is all I really got out of it. Which um, ok, that doesn't tell me anything.
If you liked In Five Years, you'll probably like this one. As it happens, I didn't care much for that one either. Oh well.
One Italian Summer has the makings of a great novel. It features a protagonist that will be relatable to women who feel like they made vows before they really understood the weight of them, or who are feeling lost in a marriage or life they aren't sure is right for them anymore. I'm pretty sure this is half the population of married women, so there will be a lot of readers that will relate to Katy. I loved the quote, "We built a life that perhaps we were too young to live."
It also features a mother who doubles as a best friend.
It's written with beautiful descriptions of place and scenery, delicious meals you can almost taste, and paints a vivid picture of the coast of Italy. I actually visited Italy on my own honeymoon, and I can attest that some of the places described - Naples especially - was exactly what I experienced. Serle's writing nails the place and essence of Italy.
Serle's novel also attempts to explore how one might move on from loss, which can be a sad and beautiful story to explore. But I'm not sure it did this part as beautifully. We get told about Katy's love for her mother, more times than necessary to get the point even, but I never felt any emotion towards the loss at all. She jumped from losing her mother to wanting to divorce her husband in the same paragraph, and it came off feeling immature and petulant instead of emotional and heartbreaking.
In the same respect, I felt much of the story was rushed. I thought it could have used more time to develop the relationships between the characters. (Spoiler coming!) Katy meets another hotel guest one morning, winds up eating breakfast with him, and then kisses him a day (maybe two?) later. She doesn't even know the guy. Look, I'm passing no judgment on her cheating, though I do not condone it, but it just didn't fit her character at all. I'm always down for a good, passionate kiss, but her circumstance was a little weird for the timing, and I just couldn't get into it at all.
Alright, a few more Spoilers ahead....
I was put off by a few other things... First, the portrayal of the husband, Eric. In the beginning chapters, he is described in a way that seems icky. Like he's intolerable and Katy can't seem to remember why she ever loved him. Was it merely because her mother approved of him? Look, I don't like icky husbands, so I was like, "Go Katy, go to Italy and get away from him and find yourself. But THEN, at the end... she totally takes him back like she didn't feel any of that at all? Like, oh, wait, my mother didn't just accept you, she actually thought you were exactly what I needed, so OK, I'll love you after all. It just didn't sit well with me. I also don't like people who cannot give others space when they ask for it - so when he shows up in Italy and breaks that boundary, I wasn't impressed.
Second, there's a part where Katy gives Nika advice about investing in Apple and Starbucks so that in the future they will have enough money to financially survive. But then I'm like... you're standing there with Carol, your mother who dies from cancer and didn't survive it because she caught it too late... why don't you warn her so she can catch it in time and not die?? I mean, that's what I would have done. Yo, Mom, go see a doctor when you're 55 and get screened for cancer!!
If I didn't think too deeply about all the pieces that were still missing to make this a great story - which it definitely had the potential to be - then I'd say this was a really enjoyable read. And for the most part it was. I got through it in a day because the writing was easy and flowed and I wanted to find out how on earth Katy was with her mother Carol 30 years in the past. But I wasn't much impressed with that aspect of it either. It just fit too nicely into a little package and I don't think it explored what it set out to do at all - which is to explore how people move on after loss. "You will learn" is all I really got out of it. Which um, ok, that doesn't tell me anything.
If you liked In Five Years, you'll probably like this one. As it happens, I didn't care much for that one either. Oh well.
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Reading Progress
January 6, 2022
– Shelved
January 6, 2022
– Shelved as:
to-read
April 2, 2022
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Started Reading
April 3, 2022
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Finished Reading
