Angelo

I read this prior to The Horseman on the Roof. Probably not a good idea even though the author indicates that Angelo is a prequel of sorts. The events found in this novel/study kept throwing me as I read Horseman eventhough I was well aware that it is a character study of the Angelo in Horseman. Perhaps if I had read Horseman first my preference would be reversed. In any event...This novel/study is a love story! Compact, austere, wrenching! What I did not get from Horseman, I got from this book..lyrical, lovely Giono! For example: "We must take care not to grow passionately fond of anything that is not worth the trouble." Angelo continually muses over how his heart has been stolen by a lovely perfume-fragrance which comes to symbolize a life worth living. What lady wears such a fragrance? Will Angelo ever meet her? The answers to these questions lie in both Angelo and The Horseman on the Roof.