Book Review: *Very Valentine* by Adriana Trigiani

Very Valentine by Adriana Trigiani

Back-of-the-book blurb:  Meet the Roncalli and Angelini families, a vibrant cast of colorful characters who navigate tricky family dynamics with hilarity and brio, from magical Manhattan to the picturesque hills of bella Italia.  In this luscious, contemporary family saga, the Angelini Shoe Company, makers of exquisite wedding shoes since 1903, is one of the last family-owned businesses in Greenwich Village. The company is on the verge of financial collapse. It falls to thirty-three-year-old Valentine Roncalli, the talented and determined apprentice to her grandmother, the master artisan Teodora Angelini, to bring the family’s old-world craftsmanship into the twenty-first century and save the company from ruin.

She is Too Fond of Books’ review:  Very Valentine opens at a wedding reception.  Not just any wedding reception, Valentine Roncalli’s younger sister is celebrating her nuptials at Leonard’s La Dolce Vita, the “wedding factory” on Long Island favored by the Roncalli family and their seemingly endless line of aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends.  Trigiani’s description of the reception is spot-on, and sets the stage for a novel full of family drama tempered by good humor.  The novel is narrated by Valentine, a thirty-something never-married woman:

I look around the room, 312 guests strong.  Last night they were a bunch of Post-its on a board in my mom’s kitchen, and today, they’re at the table they have earned in our version of Italian-American hierarchy.  First tiers:  Parents, Close Friends, Professionals, Coworkers, Cousins, Kiddies.  Second tier:  In-laws.  And third:  the Island (relatives we aren’t speaking to because something bad went down, never mind that we don’t remember what); Rude (late responders); and Dementia (don’t ask).

Valentine’s story is not all self-deprecating humor.  She lives with her 80-year-old grandmother and acts as Gram’s apprentice in the family’s custom wedding shoe shop.  Valentine is a fourth-generation cobbler, and is just beginning to realize her potential.  She’ll have to pull out all the stops to pull the Angelini Shoe Company out of a downward financial spiral.  Valentine is intelligent and attractive; I really appreciate that Trigiani has made her a strong and independent woman, not one fixated on getting married:

I don’t crave a traditional life.  If I did, I assume I’d have one.  My own sister thinks I want a life like she has, with a husband and children.  How can I explain that my thirties may not be about reaching some finish line everyone seems to be rushing toward?  Maybe my thirties are about the precious time I have left with Gram and deciding which path to take in my life.  Stability or the lark?  Very different things.

Not that Valentine is completely free of self-doubt and insecurities.  Mounting pressure from financial backers, profit-driven advice from her Wall Street brother, and signs of weariness in her elderly grandmother, cause Valentine to question what she is doing.  But shoe-making is her passion, and the artisan’s fire puts her on a path to keep the family tradition alive.

And just because she doesn’t put all her energy into finding a mate doesn’t mean that Valentine shuns romantic interest.  No, in fact, the hints at romance and building tension are better than graphic bedroom scenes, IMHO.  Who knew how sexy it could be to have a man slip off your sandals?!  Through Valentine’s thoughts and observations, Trigiani lets us know that Italian men have earned their reputation for being passionate!

The settings in Very Valentine are described in a very personal way, as they’re seen through Valentine’s eyes.  From the cobblestone streets of Greenwich Village and an insider’s view of Manhattan to the charming village of Arezzo and the idyllic island of Capri in Italy, the reader is treated to the sights that call to Valentine.

And the food … the food!  Family meals and celebrations that make She is Too Fond of Books’ efforts in the kitchen pale in comparison, exquisite restaurant menus that will have you drooling as you read about them.  Very Valentine appealed to the foodie in me, with eight recipes in the back of the book, from cocktails to dessert.

OK, a strong female lead, passion, wonderful settings, palate-appeal, shoes … what are you waiting for?!?

About the author:  Adriana Trigiani is the author of several previously published works, including the novels Lucia, Lucia and Big Stone Gap, the young adult novel Viola in Reel Life, and a cookbook, Cooking with My Sisters.  More information about Adriana Trigiani and her books can be found at the author’s web site.  Very Valentine is the first of a trilogy, with Brava, Valentine coming in early February 2010.  That’s great news for those who (like me) missed Very Valentine when it was first published last year – we can turn the last page of Very Valentine and move right to Brava, Valentine … and then wait patiently for Ciao, Valentine.

FTC disclosure: review copy provided by the publisher.