The Innamorati

Wow... Just WOW.
5 strong solid stars.
Is this my new favorite book? I mean, I already want to read it again.

I am for once, blown away. I was left speechless for 24 hours after finishing this book because my brain needed time to absorb and relish this delicious meal of a story.
I loved this book so much, that now I am actually taking a break from everything in the world, Because I am in mourning....

::throws self to the floor::
AYY MADDDDOONNNNAAA MIAAA
::puts both palms to face::
"what am I supposed to do with myself now??? Ohhhh the Drama that is this cruel life!!!"
::spits twice into palm and holds to the sky::
"Uncurse me God!! allow me to read another story as good as this in my lifetime!!"

This is an epic tale that includes show more beautiful unique characters that have different paths and intertwine at the center of the Labyrinth. It is chock full of suspense, drama, romance, humor, and mythological references. There is not ONE boring section to this story.

This book captures what it is really like to be an italian. I think we are just naturally dramatic and over the top. This Labyrinth world is so surreal, and mysterious and full of superstition. As an Italian American woman, I am fully satisfied with what the author did with these characters and the construction of this story.
I laughed, I cried, I gasped, I was truly touched, and most of all it made me even more PROUD to be an Italian. This is TRUE literature in its finest form!
ENCORE!!!!!!!!!! ENCORE!!!!! show less

This was a great read that brought me to tears more than once. The first thing that caught my eye was the Italian Renaissance setting - I've been studying Italian and am very interested in the period - and the flap notes sold me on giving it a go.

I'm glad I did! This one is a bit genre-bending. You could call it historical fantasy, but to me it reads more like magic realism in a Renaissance rather than contemporary setting. The addition of the magical elements is not to create alternate reality, but as the Wikipedia article on magic realism puts it, it "uses a substantial amount of realistic detail and employs magical elements to make a point about reality". In this case, points about personal loss and redemption.

It does this through an show more artful lens of Italian theatrical tradition. Without going into any spoilers, the book takes us on each character's inner and outer journeys to a very satisfying denouement.

Highly recommended! show less

This book takes place in Italy, in late medieval/renaissance times. We meet several characters who are all unhappy in their lives because of a (believed) curse they carry. An actor stutters, an artist can't create, a soldier looses his weapons, a sirene loses her voice. All have heard of Labyrinto, the town containing a labyrinth. It's magic and if you can get in, survive the journey and find your way out, your curse will be lifted.
In the first part of the book we meet all the cursed characters and their support. Someway or another they all enter the labyrinth where they really have to think about what it is they want, and what it might take to get. The second part of the book takes part in the labyrinth. Inside the labyrinth is a world show more of Greek mythology that can help or hinder the characters in attaining their goals.
I really liked the original (to me) ideas in the book, the journeys of the characters and the temptations they faced. The resolution at the end, while a bit corny did fit the story, and was good. show less

A lot of magic, sex, and food. Good writing, some cool scenes. Too many characters and not dark enough, like you could take out the sex and you get a children's story.

Liked it, didn't love it. Maybe I'll come back and bump it up a star later, I dunno. I'm being honest about where I am with it right now. I'm sad because I really enjoyed The Flight of Michael McBride and Hannah's Garden. But whatever it was that clicked for me with those titles, I didn't find it here.

There were a lot of fun and interesting elements here, the Commedia del Arte, a lava monster, Bacchus and the maenads running amok in a giant shapeshifting labyrinth - it could have worked. But for me it just, ... didn't. Maybe I wasn't in the right mood.

I actually enoyed the first 200 pages and was kind of into it, but then I ground to a halt. I just felt like it was going around and around in circles covering the same ground again and show more again and not in a good way. Also I wanted the characters to stop yelling at one another and lecturing each other about their personal failings. Honestly, toward the end I got so bored I started skimming.

But it won a Mythopoeic Award and got great reviews so don't take my word for it, check it out for yourself. Maybe I was just in a grumpy head space or something. show less

Again, 3.5 stars. A fantastical theatrical adventure blending myth, romance and the commedia dell'arte which is full of sprezzatura but in which the spectacle is more vivid than the characters themselves. Somehow I wanted to like it more than I did in the end, although I can't fault it for spirit and panache. You can see the full review here on my blog:
http://theidlewoman.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/the-innamorati-midori-snyder.html

I love this book. The various plot threads meander together perfectly, and the characters are nicely drawn. It's rather magical-realist, and done very well, set in an imagined Renaissance italy.

Highly recommended!