Christopher Castellani

A long-winded, tedious book covering several time periods, involving some well-off literary people, mostly gay men, whose lifestyles of promiscuity, drugs and alcohol make them dull, two-dimensional, and entirely forgettable.

The author has woven together real historical characters (about whom I knew nothing) with some fictional ones. I gather it was thoroughly researched and that fact blends well with fiction. But there's not much story. Some of the descriptive passages are quite well done and a couple of scenes came to life, but on the whole, I struggled to keep reading.

If it hadn't been this month's book club read, I would have given up after the first chapter. Possibly I should have done so - most of the others in the book group felt the same, and didn't get past the half-way mark.

Not recommended.

Longer review here: https://suesbookreviews.blogspot.com/2022/03/leading-men-by-christopher-castella...… (plus d'informations)

Set in 1953 in a tight- Italian neighborhood in Wilmington, Delaware, Saint of Lost Things is the story of Maddalena Piccinelli Grasso, who was introduced in A Kiss From Maddelena. Seven years after the end of the first book, we find Maddelena, now married to Anthony and recovering from a miscarriage which almost cost her life. She's moved into a resignation about her life and her future. It seems that although she loves Anthony she desperately misses the Italian homeland she left against her will seven years ago. I thought the immigrant theme was portrayed very realistically for the time period. So many immigrants sacrificed so much to come to America but then lived in neighborhoods with people of their own culture. They deeply resented any influx of outsiders and this book attempts to show that in a fair way. The dreams of the people, the racial tensions, the rivalry between immigrant groups, and the overall closeness of the neighborhood all seem realistic. Maddalena eventually makes a friend, a man named Julian, whose immigrant story we also become a part of.

Overall I enjoyed the story. I had no idea this was the second part of a trilogy and didn't read the first book. I don't feel that had any impact because each of the three books take places years apart. I understand the final book of the trilogy, All This Talk of Love, is available and takes place fifty years after the first. I recommend The Saint of Lost Things for people who are interested in the Italian immigrant experience and American life in the 1950s.
… (plus d'informations)