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Book ReviewsA Kiss from Maddalena |
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Book: A Kiss from Maddalena
Written by: Christopher Castellani |
Publisher: Berkley Publishing Group
Average Customer Rating: 4.5 / 5
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A shallow, but sweet story
Rating:
3 / 5
This book took me two weeks to read! I can usually read a novel in a couple of days. I repeatedly put it down and swore not to pick it back up. It was a sweet story, but it lacked depth. Maddelena is not that strong of a character and the reader never really knows why she is so special. She becomes rather annoying, too. She is too perfect. I felt that I had to "dumb-down" to read this book. I do not recommend this unless you absolutely have to read something. This is a desperation book; I only read it because I was finished with my other books and had nothing else!
Highly Recommend
Rating:
5 / 5
Excellent Book. The writer made me feel like I was a fly on the wall in the lives of these people. I feel that is the best thing a writer can do. He did a good job of making me feel like I was in this village, I could see these places. I could understand why the people were doing the things they did. I never once thought that someone did something that was out of character for them just to bring drama or move the story along. This writer's debut is very promising. I look forward to other books by him.
Bittersweet Read
Rating:
4 / 5
A Kiss from Maddalena by Christopher Castellani, Algonquin Books, 2003.
Reading this book was like tasting sweet water which, in the end, turns bittersweet.
Told from the respectful, tasteful and gentle perspective of a young man in turmoil. The story is set in a small village in Italy, during the later years of WWII. The Germans are withdrawing, the Allies are invading and Vito, the hero, is pursuing his love of Maddalena. Always the well meaning "loser" or ne'er do well in the village, he is the caretaker of his mentally deranged mother whom his father left behind for Philadelphia.
Maddalena, on the other hand, is the cherished and most beautiful girl in the village. The bella is daughter of a well-established grocer, a prize, not to be released to a husband lightly. Maddalena's family is forced to leave the village facing foreign invasion. The story follows the family as well as the plight of Santa Cecilia's inhabitants.
Love has its pitfalls, and this keeps the sweetness of A Kiss from Maddalena from being insipid. The well-constructed sorrows come alive when marital demands are placed upon Maddelena by her family. The lovely maiden faces the threat of being extricated from the family if their choices are not followed. This infuriated me. Her complex bind brought to light the conflicting issue of American's belief right to choose. Societies, with arranged marriages, are a well known, yet a widely misunderstood aspect of many cultures. This book tells the story of one young woman, one young man and a village faced with the unquestioned desire to live traditionally amidst world-wide change. Eventually, the incredible web of life that existed in this hamlet was dismantled, disarrayed during the war years. The rebuilding of the village and the casting of the web to foreign soil transpires as the tides of change carries this beauty to distant shores.
A Kiss from Maddalena, an excellent first novel, depicts innocence, naivet�, love and its never-ending heartache This easy read contained some storytelling, which I forgot as soon as I turned the page. Fortunately, the memorable passages far outnumbered the forgettable and I read on. In the end, I came away with the feeling of having read a wonderful novel. This first novel by Christopher Castellani heralds the fantastic launch of a novelist's career.
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