Italian Lessons

August 13, 2007
Pezzelli (Francesca’s Kitchen
; Every Sunday
; etc.), brings his fans a light if sometimes trite story of two lovelorn men who form an unlikely friendship. Recent college graduate Carter Quinn has fallen in love with Elena, a beautiful woman with whom he has had little more than a conversation in which he learned she was from a small town in Italy. Carter has the somewhat unrealistic dream of traveling to Italy to pursue his newfound love. Not knowing the language, Carter turns to Giancarlo Rosa, a local music professor in Providence, R.I., for private Italian lessons, though Giancarlo is leery of taking on Quinn as a student. He does, of course, and Giancarlo’s broken heart—the result of a long-ago betrayal—begins slowly to mend itself. After a summer of intense study, Quinn leaves for Italy, and Giancarlo wonders whether he should again allow himself to love. Pezzelli makes readers want to believe in love at first sight, and his earnest storytelling should win over its share of readers.

October 1, 2007
Italian native Giancarlo Rosa, a professor of music at Rhode Island College, has been living in self-imposed exile for 30 years. A bachelor weighed down by his past, he can no longer write music or perform in public. When a college grad approaches him for summer Italian lessons, the reluctant professor recognizes and is won over by the student's motive: lovestruck Carter Quinn wants to learn the language to track down an Italian girl he met briefly. Carter proves to be an excellent student and by summer's end finds himself in Italy, where, as part of his quest, he has agreed to do a favor for his teacher. What follows, however, will turn both his and the professor's world upside down. Novelist Pezzelli ("Francesca's Kitchen; Home to Italy") tells an engaging story that is as leisurely paced and satisfying as a fine Italian meal. Readers will enjoy the relationship that develops between student and teacher and savor the transformations of dreams and disappointments. Recommended for all popular fiction collections.Ron Terpening, Univ. of Arizona, Tucson

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