Lontano da niente

by Thomas Christopher Greene

Lungo la riva del placido Dog River, nell'incontaminata e splendida natura del Vermont, Charlie si è costruito una vita solitaria in cui gestisce il ristorante di famiglia e ha un solo rimpianto: aver perso le tracce del fratello Owen. Un tempo legatissimi, i due fratelli non si vedono da anni - i loro rapporti si sono interrotti a causa di una strana eredità paterna - e tutto quello che resta loro è una lunga serie di cartoline. La vita di Charlie scorre lenta e solitaria fino a quando assume Claire per dargli una mano nel ristorante e, d'un tratto, il suo piccolo universo viene sconvolto nel profondo. Fra i due, infatti, nasce una relazione intensa e appagante, fatta di passioni e di complicità al punto che Charlie pensa di aver trovato in Claire una nuova ragione per vivere. Ma quando Owen torna all'improvviso, il passato sembra riaffacciarsi come una cupa minaccia per il futuro di entrambi.

Genres: Fiction

303 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Thomas Christopher Greene is the author of 7 books, six critically acclaimed novels including the international bestseller, The Headmaster's Wife, and the collection of tiny true stories, Notes From the Porch. He is the founder of the Vermont College of Fine Arts and served as president for 13 years. His fiction has been translated into thirteen languages. He makes his home in Montpelier, Vermont and can be found online on instagram and facebook @thomaschristophergreene

Reviews

[Carla · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the second book I've read of Thomas Christopher Greene's. His latest book, The Headmaster's Wife, I read first. This was the middle book, with his first book still unread. I can see clearly that he had similar writing styles in the two books, and reached his maturity and wonderful writing style with his last book.
This story, to me, left much to be desired. Too much perhaps of a romance I'm thinking for me to like.
The characters always come alive with Mr. Greene's writing, and he has a prose that's almost poetic in his style. He almost writes with a Midwestern flair that's unique to the Midwestern writing I've come across. Concise, clear, involved. I read this book quickly, as I did his other. I think the writing style lends itself to getting involved with not only the story, but the characters quickly, making it a read that flows smoothly, and you easily want to continue reading.

Perhaps I shouldn't compare, but even as a stand alone book, I enjoyed the book, but didn't embrace it. I do think though that I will find and read Mr. Greene's first.

[Lenore · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very satisfying novel, about love, relationships, and food! Greene is a new author for me, and one I'll add to my favorites.

[Pat Newman · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Headmaster's Wife was much better.

[Lori · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm only giving it 4 stars because I enjoyed the lush and savory descriptive writing of both the landscape and food. Character development was unbalanced. Initially too much of the story was devoted to Charlie and not enough to Owen especially when Owen reappears and is supposed to be a catalyst for Claire to accept the life she's chosen? Doesn't jive. It had great potential and fizzled into some Nicholas Sparks/self help drivel. Don't worry, it's okay to cheat if you're bored with your life and the choices you've made as long as you cheat with your first true love and then you can thank him from saving you from yourself? On second thought, I need to demote my initial rating to 2 stars because the writing isn't that great to compensate for total lack of everything that would have made this novel elegant.

[Christine Durkin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't mind a highly descriptive narrative styling if there's a pay off in better understanding the characters inner workings, or if it makes you feel as if you're literally there in the setting of the book. Not the case here.

I think this would have been a much more engrossing read if it were about 2/3 its length. That said, anyone who's a big fan of this author will no doubt enjoy this work as well. His is a writing style that simply doesn't do much for me.

[Piepie | The Napping Bibliophile · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very "quiet" and slow and peaceful book, for the most part. I liked the tension building up- is she or is she not going to leave Eden. An extra star for the wonderful descriptions of cooking and food! Read this author if you like Nicholas Sparks.

[lynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

a good read. a bit predictable..pleased with the ending!!

[Cindy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyed the writing but disappointed in the ending.

[Chandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Was expecting more to the story but it was heartwarming and a good quick read. I enjoyed this author's writing style.

[Lisa Sarnowski · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was ok - sometimes, I felt like I was reading a cookbook. Definitely easy to put down :-(

[Lisa · Rating 1 out of 5]

AKA "After the Rain." How did this book end up being re-titled?! It was very disappointing when I read it as "After the Rain." I can't imagine it improves with a cover change. It's interesting reading other people's comments and discovering they loved what you found boring; they adored the main character and I found her selfish and annoying; they thought the plot soared and I thought it was boring... The only interesting parts, to me, were the cooking scenes. So what does that tell you? The food is more interesting than the characters! The Headmaster's Wife is way way better.

[Sandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

I started to get bored about halfway through, wondering where this was going. Then I thought: No. No, please don't tell me it's going where I suspect it is.

And it did.

And I got about 75% through it and skimmed the last 25% and it was very predictable. So I'm done. Don't know if I'm going to read "The Headmaster's Wife" if it's as predictable as this one.

That said, Greene writes beautifully about the scenery and the food, and the description of the wedding was just wonderful.

I think a novel about Charlotte would have been interesting.

[Jodell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Maybe that is all love was, I thought. Something momentary. A brief flash of light between two points of empty space. You took it by the hand, fell into its loving arms, and then, when it was time, you let go.”
- Beau Taplin •

[Amy White · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. This one really hit home. Beautifully written portrait of marriage. A book hasn't made me cry in years but this one did.

Favorite quotes:

"In the kitchen they filled cookie sheets with marrow bones and roasted them. They chopped onions, carrots, and celery and then slow-caramelized them with butter. They filled the largest pot they had with the roasted bones, added the vegetables, whole heads of garlic, peppercorns, cloves, sprigs of thyme, bay leaf, two bottles of red wine, and then covered it all with water. They brought it to a simmer and left it."

"Claire nodded her head, and she wanted to tell him what she thought, that she was not cut out to be a mother; that some girls were, it was what they wanted from the time they were old enough to think about such things. She was not one of them, she knew that. She figured she was too selfish. Cared too much about her own life to throw everything she had into nurturing the life of another. And she hated herself for this, for what kind of woman did not welcome the coming of a child to a man she was married to?"

"...for the first time in his life he felt like he could be himself, that in front of him lay a future where he would know what it meant to be happy, truly happy, as he sometimes naively imagined most of the people he knew were."

[Shelley · Rating 4 out of 5]

More like 3.5 stars, leafmarks has me spoiled with half stars. Parts of this read like cookbook porn with gratuitous use of fancy pants cooking terms. The pacing is slow like floating on an inner tube with a cooler of beer tied to you. The last quarter was so lovely to read and so human even if it ended differently than I hoped.

[Amanda Ishtayeh · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this love story! I thought it was very spot on with the emotions that everyone seemed to feel in the book. I enjoyed the cooking scenes and I enjoyed the interaction of all of the adults in this book. Good read!