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“An artfully designed tale [with] characters so lively they bounce off the page [and] wit so subtle that even the best jokes seem effortless.”—People
Bartolomeo di Crespi is the acclaimed interior decorator—not to mention the most eligible bachelor—in Our Lady of Fatima, New Jersey. From the dazzling shores of the Garden State to the legendary fabric houses of New York City, from the prickly purveyors of fine art in London to the Mediterranean coast of Italy, Bartolomeo is on a mission to bring talent, sophistication, and his aesthetic vision to his hometown. So when the renovation of the local church is scheduled, he assumes there is only one man to oversee the job.
Recruiting an artist and a stained-glass artisan to help with the project—two handsome men who create romantic mayhem among Bartolomeo’s sister, his erstwhile fiancée, and all the other lovelorn ladies of OLOF—Bartolomeo struggles to create art while remaining the steadfast linchpin of the volatile di Crespi clan. Together, Bartolomeo and his team will do more than blow the dust off the old Fatima frescoes—they will turn the town upside down, challenge the faithful, and restore hope where there once was none.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
June 21, 2005 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9781415951996
- File size: 315257 KB
- Duration: 10:56:47
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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Listening to Stephen Hoye reading ROCOCO is like eating lemon merinque pie--its light, frothy, scrumptious descriptions are balanced by a tart account of an extended Italian-American family. Living in northern New Jersey, they laugh, love, scheme, and yell as they struggle to balance cherished traditions with the new cultural order of all things, from hairdos and clothing styles to the parish church. Hoye's sensitive delivery of architectural and interior design descriptions will cause listeners to yearn to redo every living space NOW--and to cherish these memorable and captivating characters, who are blessed with good and generous hearts and strong family bonds. L.C. (c) AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine -
May 30, 2005
Bestseller Trigiani (Lucia, Lucia
) offers Italian recipes, family dramas and oodles of decorating ideas (if little narrative tension) in her latest novel, a feel-good story about a New Jersey interior designer tackling his dream job. In Our Lady of Fatima, N.J., plucky narrator Bartolomeo di Crespi, aka B, reigns supreme: he can doll up an ottoman with kicky trim and sparkly crystals with the best of 'em, and he decorates all the area's best houses, including the manse belonging to the mother of his putative fiancée, Capri Mandelbaum. (Really they're just friends, but Aurelia, Capri's mother, is certain they'll marry.) When the local church comes due for a major renovation, B gets the commission, after Father Porporino is convinced (forcibly, it's later revealed) that a tony Philadelphia firm won't do. But can B come up with a timeless yet innovative design for the church he loves? He calls in the experts—all of them sexy—takes trips to London and Italy, and benefits from a minor miracle amid a cast of family and friends who fight, fall in love, have babies and come out of the closet. While overlong and undramatic, the book still manages to soothe, in part because of its cozy design talk and in part because of the likable, competent B. -
The hysterics of a middle-aged serial cheater, the gravelly pontifications of a New Jersey parish priest, the meticulous mindset of an interior decorator, the sonorous inflections of a macho local contractor, the take-charge advisories of an international designer, the domineering pronouncements of an autocratic yet lonely widow--these and a cast of others surface full-blown, with hilarity and goodness of heart, in Mario Cantone's relentless narration of Adriana Trigiani's latest novel. Cantone takes Trigiani's story of contemporary (1970s) Italian-American life and injects it with an ineffable joie de vivre--or the Italian equivalent. Hysterics and angst battle for the spotlight, but the ultimate sensibility enveloping the story is abiding love. M.J.B. (c) AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine
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Starred review from September 5, 2005
Playing more than a dozen reoccurring characters living in the small Italian-American town of Our Lady of Fatima, N.J., Cantone gives a wildly entertaining tour de force performance that is both hilarious and moving. Fresh from his Tony Award–winning one-man show, Laugh Whore
, Cantone performs with cyclone energy and his wickedly arch comedic timing is rapier sharp. The biggest surprise is his lightning-fast ability to become different characters, keep them vocally consistent and make them funny but not ridiculous. Trigiani's novel is less plot-driven than full of outrageous and wonderful characters trying to untangle family ties. Bartolomeo di Crespi (aka "B") is an interior designer and bachelor of a certain age who is hired to renovate the local church when he's not dealing with his sister (who's having an affair with her ex-husband), his platonic fiancé, a sultry international designer (who sounds like Lauren Bacall) and a hunky artist brought onto the project. This totally satisfying experience will make listeners happy to learn that it's the first in a planned trilogy. A q&a with Trigiani at the end of disk four is a delightful bonus. Simultaneous release with the Random House hardcover (Reviews, May 30).
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