Lucia, Lucia

I recently finished reading Lucia, Lucia by Adriana Trigiani. It's such a lovely, well-written book. Lucia Sartori is a beautiful and talented seamstress for B. Altman's in 1950. She lives with her family in Greenwich Village. In a time where marriage and finding a husband is of the utmost importance, Lucia struggles to find a balance between her love life and her career.

Lucia has the unconditional love of her childhood sweetheart and fiance Dante DiMartino, but she knows that he and his family will want her to give up her career to be a housewife. She breaks off the engagement. Soon after this, she falls in love with a handsome charmer John Talbot. Unfortunately, Talbot turns out to have a few skeletons in the closet.

The story is told as a flashback through Lucia to her neighbor Kit, who refers to her as Aunt Lu. Lucia, Lucia is heartfelt, romantic and occasionally heartbreaking. Trigiani's descriptions of New York City and Italy, particularly Venice, are wonderful and will make you want to pack up and take a trip.

I was especially pleased with the ending of the book. Trigiani is a superb writer; she has the ability to draw you into her characters' lives. I would also highly recommend her first novel Big Stone Gap.