Lost Hearts in Italy

Andrea's Lee's strikingly redolent Lost Hearts in Italy mines the murky waters of betrayal, infidelity and misplaced passion. Her central character is Mira Ward, an attractive African American who has recently married Nick Reiver, a blonde and blue-eyed Old New England banker. College sweethearts, the young couple almost at once, fall terribly in love. Affluent and upwardly mobile, Nick and Mira seem to be blessed with everything. At the beginning if the novel, it is the early 1980's and the extremely ambitious Nick has just been offered a post in Italy, determined to pursue his career in international finance. His firm treats Mira and she decides to join him in Rome. On the flight, however, she's upgraded to first-class section where she meets Zenin, a billionaire working class Italian industrialist. The attraction isn't instant, but the misogynistic and grandiloquent Zenin seems intent to seduce this exotic and striking dark-skinned beauty. Somewhat naïve and also quite flattered, Mira gives him her number, not thinking he'll call, but when he eventually does phone, the rest of the world recedes and she simply lets him into her life as though it's nothing more than a flicker of impulse, a flash of idle curiosity. Mira inexplicably throws herself into the affair, for no good reason, apart from the fact that her thoughts grow dark and jumbled when she thinks of herself alone in Rome when Nick flies off to start work. Mira sinks her roots into a country feeling almost like the heroine of a melodrama, whereas Zenin - with is old-world ways - treats her like a sexual object, intent prop up his unhealthy dependence for physical reinforcement than any emotional security. The affair continues on until Nick eventually discovers the betrayal, all three of the still to pursue their own selfish agendas. Two decades alter they're all still alive, widely separated, no longer "hagridden by lust and jealousy," grown older and lazier, and less exacting about their pleasures. Mira immerses herself in the controlled chaos of a new family and work, and recollects the affair with a type of whimsical nostalgia, not so much for love "but for being young" Nick has a beautiful second wife and two girls besides their own daughter Maddie, and has hidden himself amongst the glass and steel corporate wilderness of Canary Wharf or Wall Street. Whilst Zenin has encapsulated himself in his money and prestige, "the vast yet hermetic universe of product wealth and chance." From city to city, London, Venice, Rome, New York and Hong Kong, all three of these characters are linked by the glorious egotistical certainty of living a betrayal unique in the world. Lee tells her story through shifting perspectives, not just through Mira, Nick and Zenin, but also through various minor players - a sister, a brother, a waiter, even an airline steward - as she steadily builds a defensive wall of memories, a gallery of life in two continents. Much of the novel involves Mira's mone

Lost Hearts in Italy is a mesmerizing read. Not a whole lot happens. Descriptions abound and we enjoy the scenery. But it is between the lines that most of this brilliant novel unfolds. Jamesian yes. Also Gertrude Stein, Philip Roth, John Updike and for that matter Richard Wright. Internal struggles of class, gender and power. Culture clash. Infidelity as self-medication and self-delusion. A different view of expatriot lives. Power plays of all types. Profound isolation. Emotional and intellectual detachment. And the true nature of intimacy. Love and loss and all that goes with it. All between the lines of gorgeous prose. Henry James would be proud. And for those critics who see only the back and forth thread of a skimpy story, you reveal more of your own provincial lives than Lee's characters. This is great storytelling in the post-modern literary world. And now on to Russia Journal. Brava Senora Lee.

This is a very well written novel. Ms. Lee has a wonderfully original style of structuring her tale so that you are provided a more broad perspective on the story and especially the characters as it moves along. Each chapter is uniquely written to first provide scenes from the early 1980's, then scenes from present day, and a final commentary by a peripheral character. I found the story to be poignant and moving and was very impressed by the clean prose. Definitely worth buying in hardcover.

Philip Roth's blurb for this book says "Andrea Lee is the real thing; there's nothing more to say." He's right, but I'll say more anyway. Writers like this come along only once or twice in a generation and Lost Hearts in Italy puts Lee on the map as a novelist. The book captures a given moment in time and space and character and nails it so firmly to the page that you think you're living these lives inside these people's skins yourself. The world she writes about is the world of late twentieth century global cosmopolitanism familiar to readers of Mavis Gallant and Joan Didion, full of well heeled transnational expats and their friends and enemies and hangers-on. It's a multilingual, multi-racial and deeply deracinated world that may represent the shape of things to come for the rootless generations ahead Read this book. It's short on plot but long on story and detail.

I read this book in a few days - stepped into another life, another world. A cautionary tale - a beautiful story, original and glowing.