The Italian Teacher

Starred review from January 15, 2018
In Rachman’s artful third page-turner (after The Rise & Fall of Great Powers), the son of a world-renowned painter struggles to escape the dark shadow cast by his father. Born in Rome to a mistress turned bride, Pinch Bavinsky only sees his domineering father, Bear, during the elder’s summer visits to Europe. After a trip by teenage Pinch to 1960s New York ends with Bear crushing his artistic ambitions, the son abandons his dreams of painting to embark on a failed career in academia before becoming a foreign language instructor in London. The most trusted of Bear’s 17 children, Pinch appoints himself overseer of his aging father’s work, and much of the novel’s well-staged tension emerges from Pinch’s choice in the early aughts to paint a reproduction of one of Bear’s paintings and sell it, passing it off as one of his father’s. Spanning the 1950s to the present, the novel does traffic a bit in familiar notions of the art world and difficult artists, but its subversion of these tropes makes for a satisfying examination of authorship and authenticity, and a fine fictionalization of how crafting an identity independent of one’s parents can be a lifelong, worthwhile project.

Captivating dialogue abounds in this entertaining audiobook about a son's efforts to meet the expectations of his father, one of the world's greatest artists. At its core, Rachman's novel is the story of Baer, a painter who believes he has no equal, and Pinch, his son, whose efforts to impress his father are repeatedly dashed by the ego-driven man. Narrator Sam Alexander skillfully brings this character study to life using accents, inflections, and the right mix of father-son tension and mutual indignation. The story fully blossoms after Baer's death, when Pinch's attempt to create his only legacy leads to unforeseen consequences. Alexander excels in these well-sculpted scenes, bringing to the fore previously suppressed emotions and ambitions that will not easily be forgotten. D.J.S. � AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine