Title: Pedestrian writing
Review: You'll have to pick your pleasures out of the dross of this very uneven novel. An interesting premise in an evocative setting receives a linguistically dull treatment. In language as plain as blank paper, Hellenga disjointedly hops from family memoir to sociological analysis to romantic adventure to professional exegesis with little sense of cohesion. It's as though he strung together vignettes from a first draft. Characters come and go without much discernable relevance to the story and motivations are murky at best. The best sections deal with Margot's mother's death, the obstacles to divorce in Italy, bidding at auction, and of course the effects of the flood on Florence. If you want a vicarious tour of the city, read Mary McCarthy's Stones of Florence instead.
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