Gentle Reads Annotation - Lucia, Lucia by Adriana Trigiani

Lucia, Lucia by Adriana Trigiani

Synopsis:

Lucia Sartori is the belle of Greenwich Village--the most beautiful girl in the neighborhood, only daughter of a prosperous grocer, a talented seamstress at the posh B. Altman's, and engaged to the handsome Dante DiMartino. Her orderly life is upended when she ends her engagement because Dante's mother would make her leave her beloved job upon their marriage. Lucia dreams of a big life, and seems to get one when she falls in love with John Talbot, a wealthy, though secretive, businessman who treats her to the luxury-filled life she hopes for. But when she is left at the altar and learns the secrets of John's life, in addition to her mother falling ill, Lucia has to pick up the pieces and choose between following her dreams or dedication to the family she loves so deeply. 

Characteristics of gentle reads:

• Old-fashioned tone: Lucia is raised in a traditional Italian family. Their values, while not always representative of her personal values, are a vital part of the story and who Lucia is as a character.
• Companionable characters: Lucia is easily relatable as a character to women. Essentially forced to choose between a career and children, she takes on life with zeal and joy, but she is faced with decisions many women can relate to. Her thoughts and feelings on them are familiar. And despite being such an ideal character, she's easy to like.
• Story emphasizes relationships: Lucia places high value on her family itself and their opinions of those around her. She is very close with her parents, and has a very present group of friends/coworkers. The plot largely follows how Lucia's life is shaped by the people around her, their decisions, and her decisions regarding them, rather than outside forces.
• Enclosed community setting: While New York City is far from a small community, the Greenwich Village community of Italians is very much so. The Sartoris know most everyone who lives around them. Lucia, despite her love of high society and the Upper East Side, always feels like an outsider.
• Slow pace: Though quite a bit of time is covered by the book, there are no cliffhangers, and the writing makes time just flow along, rather than speed through.
• Absence of strong language, violence, or sex: Sex is mentioned more than once, but not explicitly, and there is no profanity or violence.

Readalikes:
A Vintage Affair by Isabel Wolff
I Love You Like a Tomato by Marie Giordano
Sunday Kind of Love by Dorothy Garlock
The Black Madonna by Louisa Ermelino
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