The Miracles of Prato

October 13, 2008
A formulaic foray into the world of Renaissance Italy, this novel based on the life of painter Fra Filippo Lippi will be lapped up by fans of historical romance. In the year 1457, Lippi, a Carmelite monk in Prato, spots the lovely Lucrezia Buti and wants to use her as a model for his paintings and frescoes. Lucrezia's visits to the painter's bottega
are misinterpreted by the convent's corrupt and powerful prior general, with irreparable consequences for the girl. But Lippi and Lucrezia fall in love, and through a series of intrigues involving the disappearance of a relic revered as miraculous by the people of Prato, the painter and his lover are vindicated and can live happily ever after—at least until the hasty last chapter. Albanese (Blue Suburbia
) and art historian Morowitz have taken a historical rumor and fashioned it into a saccharine, tidy and satisfying romance.

November 15, 2008
Father's Day is an occasion for celebration —unless, that is, you don't know you ' re a father.

So it goes for Alec "Smoke " Avery, who learns that he has a 16-year-old son. Now a respectable teacher, Alec has a past of which his onetime nickname is suggestive: He used to deal down in the ' hood, and one of his best customers, Breanne, now Anne, similarly reformed, is the mother. "I'd sampled some of the ladies, " admits Alec, "but I hadn't left any babies behind that I knew of. But that was how things worked, wasn't it? You didn't know you'd left babies behind until you got hit for child support out of the blue. " But young Isaiah looks like dad, right down to the finest of some fine features. He's also headed down a path that may not have such a happy ending, and he has nothing but disdain when he discovers that mom used to be a crackhead ( "Anybody with an ounce of sense ...would ' ve known better than to get strung out on crack "). It's up to Alec to offer some role modeling and save the son he didn't know he had —easier said than done, since down at the projects, the competition is fierce and the temptations many. Temptations sidetrack Alec and Anne, too, as some of the author's more clinical passages explain. Little (Running from Mercy, 2006) writes comfortably in a range of registers, from N-word –laced ghetto slang to the more refined speech of the aspirational main characters, and with good humor to balance out the heavier moments (says one character of the comparative merits of Phil Donahue and Dr. Phil, "That's what's wrong with black folks right today ...always looking to the white man for information "). There's not an unexpected moment in the narrative, however, and the reader will see the ending coming from several blocks away.

A solid, believable cautionary tale —no surprises, but ably written.

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