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An Italian Wife
An Italian Wife is the extraordinary story of Josephine Rimaldi—her joys, sorrows, and passions, spanning more than seven decades. The novel begins in turn-of-the-century Italy, when fourteen-year-old Josephine, sheltered and naive, is forced into an arranged marriage to a man she doesn't know or love who is about to depart for America, where she later joins him. Bound by tradition, Josephine gives birth to seven children. The last, Valentina, is conceived in passion, born in secret, and given up for adoption.
Josephine spends the rest of her life searching for her lost child, keeping her secret even as her other children go off to war, get married, and make their own mistakes. Her son suffers in World War One. One daughter struggles to assimilate in the new world of the 1950s American suburbs, while another, stranded in England, grieves for a lover lost in World War Two. Her granddaughters experiment with the sex, drugs, and rock-and-roll in the 1970s. Poignant, sensual, and deeply felt, An Italian Wife is a sweeping and evocative portrait of a family bound by love and heartbreak.
Josephine spends the rest of her life searching for her lost child, keeping her secret even as her other children go off to war, get married, and make their own mistakes. Her son suffers in World War One. One daughter struggles to assimilate in the new world of the 1950s American suburbs, while another, stranded in England, grieves for a lover lost in World War Two. Her granddaughters experiment with the sex, drugs, and rock-and-roll in the 1970s. Poignant, sensual, and deeply felt, An Italian Wife is a sweeping and evocative portrait of a family bound by love and heartbreak.
288 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2014
95 people are currently reading
3136 people want to read
About the author
Ann Hood
72 books1,271 followersAnn Hood is the editor of Knitting Yarns: Writers on Knitting and the bestselling author of The Book That Matters Most, The Knitting Circle, The Red Thread, Comfort, and An Italian Wife, among other works. She is the recipient of two Pushcart Prizes, a Best American Spiritual Writing Award, a Best American Food Writing Award, a Best American Travel Writing Award, and the Paul Bowles Prize for Short Fiction. She lives in Providence, Rhode Island.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 588 reviews
June 2, 2014
There are books that you read and you wish you had the time you spent reading it back. This is one of those books. I never would have finished it if I hadn't received it so I could do an impartial review. So here's my impartial review. Run. Don't spend one minute reading this. It is a big waste of time and I, frankly, don't know why it was ever published.
The story is about an Italian woman who marries and then moves to Rhode Island in America. She has 6 or 7 kids (I lost track). That's the entire plot. The book follows her, her children and her grandchildren in a series of vignettes. They are all about 25-50 pages long and you never get to know the characters. Half the time I didn't even know who they were and what the point of their particular story was. The author never makes an effort to let you know their relationship to the main character and there are so many children with both Italian and American names. Maeve Binchey did these kind of vignettes so well. Their stories were part of a story, you knew who they were and you cared about them. None of those things apply here.
The author also has a lot of gratuitous sex thrown in. These women have affairs with ice men, priests, women, strange men, themselves and almost anyone who crosses their path. I don't understand why unless it was to spice up the book. It was just plain awful.
There are so many good books out there that it's shame to waste even a second on this drivel.
The story is about an Italian woman who marries and then moves to Rhode Island in America. She has 6 or 7 kids (I lost track). That's the entire plot. The book follows her, her children and her grandchildren in a series of vignettes. They are all about 25-50 pages long and you never get to know the characters. Half the time I didn't even know who they were and what the point of their particular story was. The author never makes an effort to let you know their relationship to the main character and there are so many children with both Italian and American names. Maeve Binchey did these kind of vignettes so well. Their stories were part of a story, you knew who they were and you cared about them. None of those things apply here.
The author also has a lot of gratuitous sex thrown in. These women have affairs with ice men, priests, women, strange men, themselves and almost anyone who crosses their path. I don't understand why unless it was to spice up the book. It was just plain awful.
There are so many good books out there that it's shame to waste even a second on this drivel.
August 6, 2014
I started out really liking the book and wanting to follow the story of Josephine and her family, but just as I would get involved with one character, the story would move on to another character. And it wasn't like they were necessarily even participants in previous chapters, since it jumped down generations and across family lines. Everyone was a child, grandchild, great-grandchild of Josephine, but it was hard to know which family tree you were in. I found myself referring back to the family tree in the front of the book too often.
Another issue that concerned me was that it seemed like the focus of each chapter was how the character dealt with sex and the mores of the time in which they lived. But I felt more distracted by most of the situations rather than learning more about the characters. I'm not particularly prudish, but it seemed overwelming.
There was very little plot, except for the passage of time for one immigrant family. I guess that can be a plot line in and of itself, but I felt this could have been done better.
Another issue that concerned me was that it seemed like the focus of each chapter was how the character dealt with sex and the mores of the time in which they lived. But I felt more distracted by most of the situations rather than learning more about the characters. I'm not particularly prudish, but it seemed overwelming.
There was very little plot, except for the passage of time for one immigrant family. I guess that can be a plot line in and of itself, but I felt this could have been done better.
January 1, 2015
I wish I'd read the reviews here before I bought this and I would have saved myself some money and some time.
I didn't like this at all. It should be titled "50 Shades of Immigrant Sex"
There were also so many descriptions of pregnancy, vomiting, nipples, sucking and milk...that at one point I thought I'd picked up an old midwifery textbook by mistake.
It isn't even really a novel - just a series of vignettes featuring weak women (and a man) having meaningless sex with random people. Basically just a chapter of a point in their lives that then never relates back to anything or anyone else in the story. Nothing connects, we don't get an understanding of how anyone feels or of their relationships.
I would definitely recommend avoiding this book. What a disappointment!
I didn't like this at all. It should be titled "50 Shades of Immigrant Sex"
There were also so many descriptions of pregnancy, vomiting, nipples, sucking and milk...that at one point I thought I'd picked up an old midwifery textbook by mistake.
It isn't even really a novel - just a series of vignettes featuring weak women (and a man) having meaningless sex with random people. Basically just a chapter of a point in their lives that then never relates back to anything or anyone else in the story. Nothing connects, we don't get an understanding of how anyone feels or of their relationships.
I would definitely recommend avoiding this book. What a disappointment!
October 7, 2014
I made it to page 125 before I asked myself why I was suffering through a plotless book in which I didn't like any of the characters. Since I didn't have a good answer, I gave up.
July 9, 2022
2 stars - it was okay - barely!
I have had this book on my shelf for so long I almost forgot it was there. I picked it up because I loved Ann Hood’s The Obituary Writer. Believe me this book is nothing like that book!
There were parts of this book that were good - like the beginning of the book when it was detailing the life of Josephine Rimaldi - turn of the century, Italy, forced to marry and move to American - then having seven children and the secrets she had to keep. Other than a lot of descriptive needless sex, this portion of the book wasn't all that bad.
Afterward, the novel moved to the lives of the children. More like a novel told in essays - still with way too much explicit sex throughout the story. It seemed then to go down the line of children - not all of which were very interesting. After stories of the children she commenced to start in the grandchildren's stories. BOO!
It seems I have read a number of books lately that start out one way - and fairly good - only to change directions mid-steam and go off on other characters and other story lines which just throws a wrench into what had started as a decent book.
I see that readers have rated this book as 2.7 on Goodreads - that does not surprise me. Not a book I would recommend - not a good example of what I know Ann Hood is capable of writing.
I have had this book on my shelf for so long I almost forgot it was there. I picked it up because I loved Ann Hood’s The Obituary Writer. Believe me this book is nothing like that book!
There were parts of this book that were good - like the beginning of the book when it was detailing the life of Josephine Rimaldi - turn of the century, Italy, forced to marry and move to American - then having seven children and the secrets she had to keep. Other than a lot of descriptive needless sex, this portion of the book wasn't all that bad.
Afterward, the novel moved to the lives of the children. More like a novel told in essays - still with way too much explicit sex throughout the story. It seemed then to go down the line of children - not all of which were very interesting. After stories of the children she commenced to start in the grandchildren's stories. BOO!
It seems I have read a number of books lately that start out one way - and fairly good - only to change directions mid-steam and go off on other characters and other story lines which just throws a wrench into what had started as a decent book.
I see that readers have rated this book as 2.7 on Goodreads - that does not surprise me. Not a book I would recommend - not a good example of what I know Ann Hood is capable of writing.
April 2, 2017
Everything you read in the other reviews is true. It's confusing. It's a collection of character sketches. It has awkward, unexpected, and even out-of-place sexual situations.
I picked up this book because I loved Ann Hood’s The Obituary Writer so much, and I am the great granddaughter of a Sicilian immigrant. I felt at once drawn to the opening main character, Josephine and related her to my own Sicilian Nana, who was born around the same time.
I had originally ignored the godawful reviews, but about halfway through the book, somewhere into the 1950s or ‘60s, I started to feel frustrated and challenged with keeping track of characters and structure. That’s when I encountered online all the turn-back-and-stop-reading reviews.
I couldn't. The sex was too good. The graphic sexual content had surprised and pleased me. There's an early scene involving a man of cloth and breastmilk that was really one of the dirtiest things I've ever read. And I write erotica and smut.
And the characters were too interesting. I pressed on, and soon I let go of my need to know exactly where each character figured into the family tree. I chose to trust the author, who does treat the careful reader to many connections, both thematic and familial, between the characters.
The more I gave in to it, the more it resonated for me, and I related to the characters. But also, I felt isolated from them because every time I fell in love with one, the story would change, and I had to abandon her.
So I experienced moments where I thought I might like it better as a collection of short stories, but it's more than a series of short stories. There is a sequence, a progression beyond the series of years, decades, and generations of family.
For me, that progression was a kind of multi-generational feminist tale of steps forward and back and sometimes sideways. It’s a story of the female experience, of the pain and joy of a succession of women grappling with the role of the Italian wife. The author succeeded at filtering her collection of character sketches through the lens of that character’s sexual identity, which interests me.
It was as if the female experience or feminism itself acted like a character. So if you like stories that utilize ideas and places and family lineage as alternative characters, or if you want to study alternative book shapes and plots, this book might interest you.
I picked up this book because I loved Ann Hood’s The Obituary Writer so much, and I am the great granddaughter of a Sicilian immigrant. I felt at once drawn to the opening main character, Josephine and related her to my own Sicilian Nana, who was born around the same time.
I had originally ignored the godawful reviews, but about halfway through the book, somewhere into the 1950s or ‘60s, I started to feel frustrated and challenged with keeping track of characters and structure. That’s when I encountered online all the turn-back-and-stop-reading reviews.
I couldn't. The sex was too good. The graphic sexual content had surprised and pleased me. There's an early scene involving a man of cloth and breastmilk that was really one of the dirtiest things I've ever read. And I write erotica and smut.
And the characters were too interesting. I pressed on, and soon I let go of my need to know exactly where each character figured into the family tree. I chose to trust the author, who does treat the careful reader to many connections, both thematic and familial, between the characters.
The more I gave in to it, the more it resonated for me, and I related to the characters. But also, I felt isolated from them because every time I fell in love with one, the story would change, and I had to abandon her.
So I experienced moments where I thought I might like it better as a collection of short stories, but it's more than a series of short stories. There is a sequence, a progression beyond the series of years, decades, and generations of family.
For me, that progression was a kind of multi-generational feminist tale of steps forward and back and sometimes sideways. It’s a story of the female experience, of the pain and joy of a succession of women grappling with the role of the Italian wife. The author succeeded at filtering her collection of character sketches through the lens of that character’s sexual identity, which interests me.
It was as if the female experience or feminism itself acted like a character. So if you like stories that utilize ideas and places and family lineage as alternative characters, or if you want to study alternative book shapes and plots, this book might interest you.
January 27, 2015
I wept for the trees that were wasted printing this mess.
June 4, 2014
Waited in line at Book Expo to pick up this book - what a major disappointment. Thinking from the synopsis on the back that this was a story of the generations of an Italian family, all I found was a book whose entire focus was on on her breasts, followed by her daughter's and then her grand daughter's. I do admit that I only skimmed the last half of this book but I still have to say - Don't waste your time or money.
August 4, 2014
I liked the first part of this book, but then I discovered it is not so much a novel as it is a series of short stories about naive women and their sex lives. The lack of continuity made me crazy. I got angrier the more I read. I finished it to see if the stories would tie together somehow, but they didn't really. Yuck.
May 7, 2020
Too many characters and not enough follow through on each one. Josephine is the first principal character and the story abruptly moves to the next generation and leaves her behind as a very minor part of the story - she is in the room or as in the third's case generation she becomes a nasty old woman who makes a mean comment at family gatherings. These people struggle, yes, but I did not cheer for them, I did not feel for them - there wasn’t enough of each person to care about. And there were no moments of triumph that made the story worthwhile. This made the story tedious.
September 11, 2016
I listened to this through Overdrive on my phone courtesy of the Toledo Lucas County Public Library. The reader was phenomenal! It's basically a collection of short stories with interconnected characters. In every chapter there is sex. The story overall is only a little interesting. I really feel the title should be called "A Bunch of Indiscriminate People."
July 29, 2014
What first grabbed me about this novel is that the story begins in the early 1900s in Italy. Since my grandmother's parents came from Italy, I wanted to read more about that time period. In the first chapter, a young Josephine is married off to an older man when she is 14 years old. She is later "sent for" by her husband who has moved to the U.S. and so she must go to America against her wishes. This chapter grabbed me and made me immediately know and like Josephine as a character. I loved seeing her in rural Italy when times were much simpler and then seeing America through her immigrant eyes.
The novel is a series of short stories strung together with Josephine as the main link. Each chapter chronologically ages and we get a story from a different person in Josephine's family tree (e.g., one of her children or grandchildren). Fortunately for the reader, we're given an actual family tree at the beginning of the novel. This was a fantastic resource; I could immediately identify each chapter's character.
While the novel includes stories from across three generations, I didn't feel that it was truly a multi-generational novel like Jeffrey Eugenides' "Middlesex." That novel dragged on; "An Italian Wife" moved quickly. In fact, maybe a bit too quickly. Ann Hood is so adept at character development that I felt like I could read a novel about each chapter's main character. I didn't get enough of any of them, and that's my only disappointment with the book. I wanted an entire book about Josephine set in the early 1900s. An entire book about her war-torn son Carmine. An entire book about her daughter who became a nun. An entire book about Valentina, the child she gave away.
I've never read anything by Ann Hood before, but after reading "An Italian Wife," I feel that I need to explore her other books. She is a fantastic writer, and I have high hopes that I will love her other novels equally.
The novel is a series of short stories strung together with Josephine as the main link. Each chapter chronologically ages and we get a story from a different person in Josephine's family tree (e.g., one of her children or grandchildren). Fortunately for the reader, we're given an actual family tree at the beginning of the novel. This was a fantastic resource; I could immediately identify each chapter's character.
While the novel includes stories from across three generations, I didn't feel that it was truly a multi-generational novel like Jeffrey Eugenides' "Middlesex." That novel dragged on; "An Italian Wife" moved quickly. In fact, maybe a bit too quickly. Ann Hood is so adept at character development that I felt like I could read a novel about each chapter's main character. I didn't get enough of any of them, and that's my only disappointment with the book. I wanted an entire book about Josephine set in the early 1900s. An entire book about her war-torn son Carmine. An entire book about her daughter who became a nun. An entire book about Valentina, the child she gave away.
I've never read anything by Ann Hood before, but after reading "An Italian Wife," I feel that I need to explore her other books. She is a fantastic writer, and I have high hopes that I will love her other novels equally.
March 25, 2015
What a terrible book. It started out well in Italy, but fell apart when the main character comes to the US. instead of focusing on the main character, it digresses to her children and a sexual predator priest. Verges on X-rated and I am no prude.
November 3, 2018
Josephine is from a very rural part of Italy and lives within the confines of old traditions and her small village. She marries the older man her parents arrange for her and follows him to America, never really questioning anything. She births seven babies and follows the priest’s rules and suggestions to a fault. In the first half of the 20th century Catholic priests were feared and women especially followed the rules.
After her husband dies her children question everything and Josephine no longer knows what answers are best.
An interesting change for Ann Hood from her more typically intelligent novels. I didn’t read this when it first came out. Thankfully she’s gone on to write her best books
After her husband dies her children question everything and Josephine no longer knows what answers are best.
An interesting change for Ann Hood from her more typically intelligent novels. I didn’t read this when it first came out. Thankfully she’s gone on to write her best books
October 1, 2015
Review tomorrow. It may take a full day for me to find the positives here. Or...I can make a suggestion now. Enjoy the pretty cover with your eyes and use your mind for other things. Two stars. 3 frowns. :( :( :(
Ok...so here's the deal. I could've liked this book had there been more of a storyline to follow.
We begin the story with a young Italian girl who is fifteen and enjoying her life until her mother informs her that she will be married, a marriage that has long since been arranged. Josephine will marry Vincenzo Rimaldi. Their marriage was planned by their parents since Josephine was eight. Poor Josephine does not meet her husband-to-be until the day of her wedding. She's not too pleased with his looks. Josephine tries to make a break for it, becoming a runaway bride, but she dutifully returns, an hour late for the ceremony and in a torn, wet wedding dress. (See? This story could've been likable. Josephine was a likable character, although a little spineless.) Well, now they're married and this young, naive bride is horrified when her mother-in-law enters the bedroom after the marriage has been consummated, rips the soiled sheet off of the bed and hangs it out of the window for ALL of the wedding guests to see that Josephine was indeed a virgin. Say WHAT?! Traditions. Lots of traditions that Josephine's mother failed to explain! Vincenzo will be leaving his new bride in three days and sailing to America, where he will find a job and buy a home. Once he is established, he will send for his wife. Vincenzo hopes he will be sending for a wife and a baby. Mercifully, Josephine does not become preggers in the three long days she and her new husband spend together. Once he leaves for America, she goes back to the carefree life she enjoyed before her introduction to married life. For seven years. Then, he finally sends for her and the carefree days of youth are done and over. At least for Josephine. After she arrives in America, she has one baby after the other. The Rimaldi's become a large Italian family and not exactly a happy family. Josephine becomes appalled by Vincenzo, as did I, and she seeks comfort elsewhere. Mistakes are made. There's a solution that turns into a life-long regret and afterwards, the story goes downhill from here. Josephine's story is placed on the backburner while the reader witnesses the Rimaldi children growing up. Fast. One day they were babies and the next the kids were providing grandchildren. From here, the story focused (barely) on one girl from each generation of the Rimaldi family. I really never knew who belonged to whom and I'm not sure I really cared. The author did provide a family tree at the beginning of book that one could flip back and refer to but I never really did because it didn't really matter. The story would focus on this one woman for a bit and then jump to someone else, never finishing the previous storyline. Frustrating, to say the least. Hood finished one, maybe two, of the characters stories but by then I was way past the point of caring. Oh! Did I forget to mention that there was LOTS of unnecessary sex?! Yea. There was. Weird, random sexual scenes that had little to do with anything other than to point out the differences of each sexual generation. So...there ya have it. I did NOT like the way this story was told or even half-told. I'm done.
I would like to thank the Goodreads Giveaways for an ARC.
Ok...so here's the deal. I could've liked this book had there been more of a storyline to follow.
We begin the story with a young Italian girl who is fifteen and enjoying her life until her mother informs her that she will be married, a marriage that has long since been arranged. Josephine will marry Vincenzo Rimaldi. Their marriage was planned by their parents since Josephine was eight. Poor Josephine does not meet her husband-to-be until the day of her wedding. She's not too pleased with his looks. Josephine tries to make a break for it, becoming a runaway bride, but she dutifully returns, an hour late for the ceremony and in a torn, wet wedding dress. (See? This story could've been likable. Josephine was a likable character, although a little spineless.) Well, now they're married and this young, naive bride is horrified when her mother-in-law enters the bedroom after the marriage has been consummated, rips the soiled sheet off of the bed and hangs it out of the window for ALL of the wedding guests to see that Josephine was indeed a virgin. Say WHAT?! Traditions. Lots of traditions that Josephine's mother failed to explain! Vincenzo will be leaving his new bride in three days and sailing to America, where he will find a job and buy a home. Once he is established, he will send for his wife. Vincenzo hopes he will be sending for a wife and a baby. Mercifully, Josephine does not become preggers in the three long days she and her new husband spend together. Once he leaves for America, she goes back to the carefree life she enjoyed before her introduction to married life. For seven years. Then, he finally sends for her and the carefree days of youth are done and over. At least for Josephine. After she arrives in America, she has one baby after the other. The Rimaldi's become a large Italian family and not exactly a happy family. Josephine becomes appalled by Vincenzo, as did I, and she seeks comfort elsewhere. Mistakes are made. There's a solution that turns into a life-long regret and afterwards, the story goes downhill from here. Josephine's story is placed on the backburner while the reader witnesses the Rimaldi children growing up. Fast. One day they were babies and the next the kids were providing grandchildren. From here, the story focused (barely) on one girl from each generation of the Rimaldi family. I really never knew who belonged to whom and I'm not sure I really cared. The author did provide a family tree at the beginning of book that one could flip back and refer to but I never really did because it didn't really matter. The story would focus on this one woman for a bit and then jump to someone else, never finishing the previous storyline. Frustrating, to say the least. Hood finished one, maybe two, of the characters stories but by then I was way past the point of caring. Oh! Did I forget to mention that there was LOTS of unnecessary sex?! Yea. There was. Weird, random sexual scenes that had little to do with anything other than to point out the differences of each sexual generation. So...there ya have it. I did NOT like the way this story was told or even half-told. I'm done.
I would like to thank the Goodreads Giveaways for an ARC.
September 11, 2014
I was given this book as part of the first reads giveaways in exchange for an honest review.
Rather than a "typical" novel structure, this reads as a bunch of connected short stories, following an Italian family in America from the turn of the century to the mid-70s. Hood's prose is beautiful, even as she exposes the darkness. If anything, this book seems to be about dreams that die, the disappointments of life. Where the American dream fails.
There is a sad beauty there, but as I don't get to spend much time with most of the characters, I have trouble really investing myself in their journeys. Especially as it quickly becomes clear that there will be no happy endings here. There is no even glimmer of hope. I know how it will end. Additionally, most of the disappointments revolve around relationships, especially romantic and sexual relationships. With most of the stories revolving around women, it packs the punch of discontent and unrest at the heart of the second wave women's movement.
This book wasn't my cup of tea at the moment. But there is something haunting here, and as a quick read it may be worth it. Just don't expect happily-ever-after.
Rather than a "typical" novel structure, this reads as a bunch of connected short stories, following an Italian family in America from the turn of the century to the mid-70s. Hood's prose is beautiful, even as she exposes the darkness. If anything, this book seems to be about dreams that die, the disappointments of life. Where the American dream fails.
There is a sad beauty there, but as I don't get to spend much time with most of the characters, I have trouble really investing myself in their journeys. Especially as it quickly becomes clear that there will be no happy endings here. There is no even glimmer of hope. I know how it will end. Additionally, most of the disappointments revolve around relationships, especially romantic and sexual relationships. With most of the stories revolving around women, it packs the punch of discontent and unrest at the heart of the second wave women's movement.
This book wasn't my cup of tea at the moment. But there is something haunting here, and as a quick read it may be worth it. Just don't expect happily-ever-after.
March 5, 2020
I was really put off when I read so many negative reviews on this book. I almost just returned it to the library, but I was already about 30 pages in and had already had some laugh out loud moments, so I decided to keep reading. I'm so glad I did! There weren't too many funny parts after the beginning and yes there is quite a bit of erotica in it, but the writing was so good. I understand how people felt it was more like a collection of short stories, than a novel, since almost each chapter was about another family member, but unlike most reviewers, I felt it worked really well for the book. Hood is a talented writer and she did a fantastic job of diving into her characters, so that the reader really knew them in just a few pages. I loved learning about each of the family members. 4 solid stars
January 18, 2016
On the heels of an Easter Sunday family gathering––where I sat and listened to my mother and my oldest sister's mother-in-law swap recipe's for Ricotta Pie; where I enjoyed the special soup, Pasta Della, a recipe from our family's village now made only by our middle sister;where we celebrated my father's 80th birthday by eating Italian Rum Cake––I came home to an ARC of An Italian Wife. On a rainy Tuesday, I read it straight through. It begins with the story of the matriarch of an Italian-American family, Josephine, and follows her life through the stories of her children, grandchildren,and great grandchildren. Mostly, what we find here are the coming-of-age stories and marital disappointments of Josephine's female descendents, all of them passionate and plagued with insurmountable longings. Chapters stand alone as individual stories and weave together to create a novel-like reading experience. The narrative deals with themes of ethnic struggle, patriarchy, and familial relationship in the tumult of America's melting pot spanning the 20th century. The prose is masterful and well-paced, the characters original, and the details distinct.
September 28, 2014
First I must say I grab this up at library because I really enjoyed the authors last book the obituary writer. Second--this book is no where close to that book.
So disappointing. Several generations of italian-americans from same family and their sex life's. Who cares!
And it really bothered me that a woman that spent the majority of her life in America died only knowing a few English words. My great grandparents came off the boat in 1916 but learner the English language. It just didn't seem believeable
This one didn't work for me but I would give the author another chance as I have read better works from her.
So disappointing. Several generations of italian-americans from same family and their sex life's. Who cares!
And it really bothered me that a woman that spent the majority of her life in America died only knowing a few English words. My great grandparents came off the boat in 1916 but learner the English language. It just didn't seem believeable
This one didn't work for me but I would give the author another chance as I have read better works from her.
December 4, 2014
I was very disappointed in this novel. Almost all of the characters are shallow. Italian men and Italian-American men are portrayed in the worse way. The women characters are mostly foolish people who go along with what ever happens to them and listen all too easily to what men tell them to do, say or feel.
Sex has a huge role to play n the stories. Women want it whether they enjoy it or not and men take it because it's their due. No one really enjoys it unless it's an illicit affair with an ice man.
Ann Hood portrayed the Italian-American community, especially its women, as superficial fools on fools' errands.
Sex has a huge role to play n the stories. Women want it whether they enjoy it or not and men take it because it's their due. No one really enjoys it unless it's an illicit affair with an ice man.
Ann Hood portrayed the Italian-American community, especially its women, as superficial fools on fools' errands.
December 11, 2014
This book started out OK, but went downhill quickly from there. This is a multi-generational tale spanning many decades and I found myself flipping to the chart in the front more than once to keep track of who all these people are. Then the author spend precious little time on some characters. She just leaves you hanging, wondering what happened with them. Almost like "jump cuts" in the movies, there's just a short vignette of someone, then on to the next. Very discombobulating to the reader. Plus there was way too much emphasis on sexuality. I liked other books by this author but this one was a big disappointment. Don't bother.
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September 29, 2014I usually do not give a review.. and I usually enjoy this particular author.
Notice I said usually. I find the stereotypical portrayal of Italian Americans to be totally offensive.
We are not puttanas. We are family oriented, fun loving, la dolce vita kind of people. Woman who adore our families. To Italians, LA FAMIGLIA is EVERYTHING. We would sacrifice our own happiness for those we love.
I was hoping to find an intriguing, wonderful look at Italian woman.
Ms Hood, stick to subjects you have some sort of knowledge about.
Notice I said usually. I find the stereotypical portrayal of Italian Americans to be totally offensive.
We are not puttanas. We are family oriented, fun loving, la dolce vita kind of people. Woman who adore our families. To Italians, LA FAMIGLIA is EVERYTHING. We would sacrifice our own happiness for those we love.
I was hoping to find an intriguing, wonderful look at Italian woman.
Ms Hood, stick to subjects you have some sort of knowledge about.
January 17, 2020
I loved this book; it captured me from the first few pages. It shows pieces of the stories of a family, beginning in Italy in 1889 with an arranged marriage. The stories jump through time with the book ending in the 1970’s. I love an immigrant story and I love a family tree to reference.
January 19, 2021
Eh nothing exciting about this one. Not good but not terrible. At least it came off my shelf and filled a reading challenge prompt LOL
March 19, 2015
I'll start with saying this book had something that had potential to be good. The book is essentially a book of short stories. The first one being about Josephine, a young woman from Italy in 1889 on her wedding day. She is about to enter an arranged marriage and will move to America after the wedding. The story appears alright until her mother talks to her about sex in the most uncomfortable way possible. There are dogs and inapproriate verbs such as "wiggle" involved. The first part of the book goes on to tell about her early life with her husband, living in America as an immigrant, and the birth of her seven children. You also get introduced to the first of many awkward sex scenes. Unfortunately, I think the author tries too hard to be erotic, and they all end up being as uncomfortable as the mother using dogs to educate her daughter about sex in the beginning. Most of Josephine's offsprings end up being annoyingly naive when it comes to sex and the opposite sex, including herself. I almost wish there was a camera filming me as a I listened to these sex scenes (I got through this book via audiobook).
The rest of the book tells a story from Josephine's children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren's point of view. This is the concept that could have potentially been good. I like the idea of hearing the stories of different generations starting with the member that moved to America at the turn of the century. I especially liked the story about her granddaughter who despised being Italian and did everything in her power to be "American". Her son on the other hand wanted to embrace being Italian. Sadly, there was nothing tying these stories together besides the fact that they were related to Josephine. The author also made no attempt to help you get to know the characters. It was really hard to understand anyone's motives. If I was the editor, I would of told the author to get rid of the stories about the son, grandson, the 15 year old great granddaughter, and the baby Josephine gave up at birth (which, by the way, was the biggest "what the hell is the point of this?" story) and call the book, "The Italian Wives." It would of at least given the book some kind of point.
To wrap up this clumsy book, she goes back to the point of view Josephine during her dying days. Instead of ending it with a sense of calm or happiness or anything a good book should make you feel, she rehashes events from the very beginning of the book that you have long forgotten and closed the book making you feel sad, kind of angry and like you just wasted your time.
The rest of the book tells a story from Josephine's children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren's point of view. This is the concept that could have potentially been good. I like the idea of hearing the stories of different generations starting with the member that moved to America at the turn of the century. I especially liked the story about her granddaughter who despised being Italian and did everything in her power to be "American". Her son on the other hand wanted to embrace being Italian. Sadly, there was nothing tying these stories together besides the fact that they were related to Josephine. The author also made no attempt to help you get to know the characters. It was really hard to understand anyone's motives. If I was the editor, I would of told the author to get rid of the stories about the son, grandson, the 15 year old great granddaughter, and the baby Josephine gave up at birth (which, by the way, was the biggest "what the hell is the point of this?" story) and call the book, "The Italian Wives." It would of at least given the book some kind of point.
To wrap up this clumsy book, she goes back to the point of view Josephine during her dying days. Instead of ending it with a sense of calm or happiness or anything a good book should make you feel, she rehashes events from the very beginning of the book that you have long forgotten and closed the book making you feel sad, kind of angry and like you just wasted your time.
January 31, 2015
Ann Hood is no Adriana Trigiani! I had high expectations for this book when I saw it at B&N. This book had so much potential to be a story of a multi generational Italian family, what I so love in Trigiani's books. The first chapter started off with promise as Josephine was set up in an arranged marriage and left Italy to start her new life in America. Unfortunately, the chance of a great story ended after that first chapter. The rest of the book jumped from generation to generation, without the characters being introduced in any of the previous chapters. Some of the characters had potential to have interesting stories, but you only got to know them for one chapter and then it was on to the next generation. Strong Italian families with their traditions, love of their home country and pride in making something of themselves in America, can make a beautiful story that will stick with you for some time. This book blew it! The characters in this book were nothing but a bunch of sex craved putan's. They were either embarrassed by their Italian traditions or described as a stereotypical Italian. Next time I am looking for an Italian family themed book, I'll just wait for Adriana Trigiani to release one. Adriana never disappoints & that is why she is my favorite author!
October 6, 2014
Man - I love the author's other books, but I got impatient with this one. Maybe it's b/c I was listening to it and there are so many characters to keep straight. I almost stopped listening about 3/4 of the way through b/c I just didn't like or care about any of the characters...
Josephine Rimaldi comes over from Italy in an arranged marriage in the late 1800s. She has 7 children. The novel follows them and their children over almost 100 years. I liked seeing what happened to the different characters, but had a really hard time keeping them all straight (there is a family tree in the book that I didn't get to see while listening, which would have helped). Plus most of them were really unlikeable and extremely unhappy. They all try to cope with their unhappiness with sex in some way, even the priest, and I found this disconcerting and creepy. If you have a big stack of books waiting to be read, don't waste your time on this one.
Josephine Rimaldi comes over from Italy in an arranged marriage in the late 1800s. She has 7 children. The novel follows them and their children over almost 100 years. I liked seeing what happened to the different characters, but had a really hard time keeping them all straight (there is a family tree in the book that I didn't get to see while listening, which would have helped). Plus most of them were really unlikeable and extremely unhappy. They all try to cope with their unhappiness with sex in some way, even the priest, and I found this disconcerting and creepy. If you have a big stack of books waiting to be read, don't waste your time on this one.
November 7, 2014
A Italian Wife is a story of Josephine Rimaldi. She was a young girl (15 years) who reluctantly enters into an arranged marriage with a man who emigrates to the United States. She has seven children, one was an affair with the love of her life. Josephine allows this baby girl to be adopted and sadly she lives with this secret forever.
This is a generational story, briefly revealing her children's lives and then her grandchildren. A strong sexual current runs through the series of interconnected short stories. The chapters always revolve around Josephine, her sorrows, the church and its powers and how Josephine remained truly Italian, even after living in the States for 30 years.
This is a generational story, briefly revealing her children's lives and then her grandchildren. A strong sexual current runs through the series of interconnected short stories. The chapters always revolve around Josephine, her sorrows, the church and its powers and how Josephine remained truly Italian, even after living in the States for 30 years.
March 19, 2015
At first I thought I had missed some important element, but I was right to discover that this novel is uneven, choppy, with undeveloped characters, jumps in time that don't connect, and egregious emphasis on sex. The author should have had a demanding editor to encourage her to spend more time on the characters and transitions and less time on the graphic sex scenes. The premise of the story was a good idea, but then it went nowhere. Don't bother to read it.
October 24, 2019
An excellent portrait of a woman's life from the age of eight in a tiny village in Italy until she was a very old woman in America. It provides a wonderful glimpse into the culture of Italian Americans and presents the saga of immigrants. There is quite a bit of graphic material in the novel and I think some of it might've been edited out. It was totally enjoyable and easy to read.
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