The White Palazzo

by Ellen Cooney

Days before her wedding, Tara Barlow ditches her fiancé and her hometown to head west in her prize Mustang after she discovers that her dream wedding venue—the White Cliffs—has burned down. Tara’s alarmed family sends the town psychic, Guida, to find her. When she tracks Tara to a town full of Fellini-esque characters, the two find themselves surprised but requited in their mutual attraction. They immediately hit the road, attempting to live out the happy ending Thelma and Louise only dreamed about. Ellen Cooney is the author of three novels. Her stories appear in The New Yorker, The Literary Review , and Story magazines. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Genres: Fiction

200 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2002

About the author

Ellen Cooney is the author of eleven novels, most recently A Cowardly Woman No More (Coffee House Press, April, 2023). Her short stories have appeared in The New Yorker, Fiction, New England Review, and many other journals. She has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Massachusetts Artists Foundation. Born in Clinton, Massachusetts in 1952, she lived for many years in Cambridge, and taught writing classes and workshops at Boston College, Northeastern University, MIT, Harvard Extension School, and the Seminars at Radcliffe. She lives in Phippsburg, Maine.

Reviews

[Bandit · Rating 1 out of 5]

Judging from the description this book was meant to be great many things...a road adventure, a small town story, an off beat romance...but it didn't really succeed at any of these things. And, of course, this is only an opinion and there might be some readers out there who'd love this particular style of storytelling, but it was just too quirky for the quirk's sake. And for the most part not cute interesting original quirky, but the...hey look how wild and wacky and kooky this whole thing is, with a wink and a nudge. It wasn't unreadable, it just wasn't really worth a read. At least it was a quick one.

[False · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading (twice) her novel "Gun Ball Hill." Based on that, I decided to read her other books. This is set in a small town in New England where young, but aging fast Tara Barlow faces an impending marriage she isn't sure of. The entire book has a feeling of lost opportunities, defining romance and the nature and a repetition of Tara's wedding (and her ideal Christmas) colors of red, green, silver and white. These pop up at varying points in the narrative and do her employers, parents and a cast of "characters" including a three-eyed seer which gives a patina to the book of mysticism and folk tale. I never truly became engaged other than in the white palazzo "White Cliffs" which burns to the ground prior to Tara's wedding. People seems to be bending over backwards to make her happy while hitting her wall of indifference to everything, including life.

[Frances · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Coffee House Press author - I heard her read the first chapter at the Amazon women's bookstore. A charming story, and it went fast. Quirky main characters (too quirky?), women, who fall in love when one runs away from her wedding and the other, a fortune teller, tracks her down.