Christine Palamidessi MooreCritiques

This is a book that was incredibly high-reaching in scope, but just didn't quite make it in my mind. It includes all the ingredients for an interesting and exciting story: religion, culture, family, romance and mystery; unfortunately it lacked the story-telling technique necessary to keep me engaged. Part of the reason for my lack of enthusiasm may be that I didn't know it would be so heavily weighted in the mystery genre. I'm not generally a huge fan of mysteries (although I loved "King of the Confessors" which is very similar to this one as far as genre) but I do love history, art and religion. I can recommend this book to true mystery/thriller fans who aren't as interested in the academic aspect.

this book was boring and unreal. The adventure these two went on was to fake and at times bored the reader. some of the descriptions could of been longer.

I had a hard time getting into this book, and left it sitting on my bedside table for a few months between attempts. However, after a few chapters I finally did find it easier to delve into, and eventually I did get hooked. It starts out with a plot that seems to be about sibling rivalry, but somehow becomes a mystery involving the Vatican, art smuggling, opera, and murder. If that sounds a little reminiscent of a Dan Brown thriller ... it's really not. It's not nearly as tangled or dark, though it does take quite a few twists and turns.

Admittedly, this is not my favorite genre. If you like mystery and intrigue, you might get into it a little faster than I did. All in all, not a bad book; just not one of the best.

I found this book to be dark and somewhat disturbing. It was difficult for me to read. Casual sex, casual drugs, casual violence are all a part of this story, and maybe I just wasn't in the mood, but I didn't like it. It was just a bit too sad somehow for me.

I had a difficult time getting into this one but the story irons out nicely and I did end of enjoying it.½

It is difficult to describe this book. I did not immediately become enthralled with it. It took a while for me to get into the characters and plot, but eventually I did want to keep reading, if only to figure out where the author was going with this. It was an ok read, with a few interesting scenes, and some intrigue, but I'm probably not going to be re-reading it.

I made two attempts to read this book before I gave up. Like "rosses" I found the prose stiff. Unlike "rosses" and other reviewers, I didn't find the storyline that compelling. Maybe I gave up too soon given the other positive reviews this book has received, but I have too many other books on my "to read" list to try a third time.

An amusing and haunting book. Unlike other reviewers, I didn't immediately take to this book; I didn't care for the characters, and the prose seemed artificial. However, I couldn't stop reading it, and eventually its compelling storyline drew me into the lives of the characters. Scenes stayed with me long after I finished this book. Ms Moore is a talented writer and this oddly beguiling modern morality tale is a winner. Her unique prose style also grew on me, and I was disappointed when there was no more to read.

This was a fabulous book! I enjoyed the story and was basically enthralled for two days. I'm usually not one for religious stories, but this one really worked. Ms. Moore's use of the language was especially enjoyable -- from beginning to end, it all worked. I would recommend this book to everyone I know. I got a chuckle from The Virgin Knows (and The Virgin "Nose"). It was funny, scary, sad, happy ... bottom line -- I loved it!

First off, any book that has a picture of Madonna and child on the cover, gets points with me. I immediately looked up the artist (Pietro Perugino) and the current location (Galleria Borghese, Rome) so that I could do a little armchair travelling and art appreciation. That done, I settled into the book.

It is an entertaining and far flung world Moore has placed between the covers of her novel. Though the pace was occasionally uneven, it was highly entertaining. The number of topics covered is slightly amazing: twin stuff, "mom always liked you best", post WWII Italy, nursing (the image of a psychic OR nurse really made me smile), translocation, immigration, the old country, conspiracy, art theft, Roman Catholicism, men's views of women, women's views of men, love-- as I said it was broad.

The title of the book is a nice play on words. While Alicia, the quinticential spinster/virgin knows all (though some of it is through psychic ability), it was her brother Carlos who did find and pocket a fragment of the Virgin Mary's nose, when the Pietà was damaged in 1972. The Virgin Knows -- The Nose Knows. Who knows? Throughout the book I found other use of words as descriptors that delighted me: "Renato had a shiny reputation", the description of a throbbing head as a "red" sound. Or the teasing of immigrants bungling language. Or simple observations, that really are so profound ("If you stay awake too often, you lose your dreams.)

There is a sub-plot of art theft and recovery, but ultimately, this is a story about many things: sibiling loyalty, passion, nurturing, devotion. Of separation, grief, abandonment and berievement. Of discovery, rediscovery and explorations Of relationships and generations caring for each other (I was particularly touched by Alicia's caring for her aging mother, and recognition of role reversal there "She was not only my mother, but also my daughter and my friend." I am envious that she never lost patience. That's hard to do. Trust me on that.) Of redemption, faith and the belief in family. What the Virgin knows, is ultimately about love.½

review from Italian Americana, (academic journal)Spring 2009The Fiddle Case by Christine Palamidessi Moore. Boston:/IAP Press, 2008. 243pp.

In this coming-of-age story two nineteen-year-old women set out across the country in the summer of 1972, searching for answers about siblings they have lost. Their initial goal is soon overshadowed by the trip itself, reminiscent of Thelma and Louise. What begins as an upbeat adventure evolves into a dark thriller as they try to return a stolen fiddle to a cult member. The plot has many twists and turns, taking us across landscapes from Boston to Berkeley. The language conjures up images that titillate the senses: “sex was like a swirling tornado of white light.” Music of the time pervades; it is the driving force behind the road trip. References to politics (Watergate, Vietnam), to music (Beatles, B.B. King), to something as mundane as cigarette brands (low-tar Salems in Kentucky, Virginia Slims in California) convey larger meanings of the cultural background. The alliance between Anna and Cindy is central; other characters serve to illuminate their personalities or carry the plot forward.

Palamidessi Moore paints a convincing picture of the contradictions that women faced with the new sexual freedom of the 1970s. Although both claim to be liberated, Anna and Cindy argue over whether they are responsible for each other or should just allow each one to do whatever she wants at the moment. Anna has sex for the first time and Cindy complains about Bill who is twenty-eight while she is only nineteen. He asked what she wanted him to do in lovemaking. She was upset: shouldn’t he teach her something she didn’t already know? Aren’t men supposed to be the aggressors? Such paradoxes expose the dilemmas of the generation.

As with her first novel, The Virgin Knows, Moore weaves fantasy into the tale. The fiddle case exudes a flood of light and warmth when least expected, punctuating a closeness of spirit like that of trust or intimacy between friends. The relationship between siblings in both novels carries the resentment that one feels about the good fortune of the other. Considering the view that a novel should be like a street full of strangers where no more than two or three people are known to us in depth, Fiddle hits the mark.

There is little to identify the italianità of the novelist in contrast to The Virgin Knows, which moves from Rome to the United States and associates the characters with Italian culture on both sides of the Atlantic. But in The Fiddle Case Palamidessi Moore has left ethnicity behind to concentrate on details of American culture in the 1970s with its cults, folk music, and sexual liberation couched in an engaging, suspenseful story.

MARIE SACCOMANDO COPPOLA, PhD

Summer 1972, Anna and Cindy, 19 year old best friends hitch-hike their way from a folk festival in Kentucky to California in search of Anna's sister Daria (who always seems to be one step ahead of them) and her boyfriend, a folk music star Charlie Cyr, both of whom are members of a cult "The Group". With them they bring Charlie's violin which they have managed to rescue after it was stolen.

I was expecting something quite different of this book - a bit of a glimpse at the atmosphere of the folk scene in the 70s maybe. I certainly expected it to be more evocative - but then, I wasn't born in 1972, so I am really no judge of this and I probably should have read the blurb properly - it would be better described as a "coming of age" story. The plot is fairly disjointed, leaping around between situations that stretched my imagination at least. The characters themselves seem to be more caricature than realistic (in particular the leader of "The Group", who just seems completely insane). This said, I did find the mercurial relationship between the two girls reasonably convincing, down to them being able to pick up from where they left off, years later (in the prologue) - although I would have expected such great mates to have stayed in touch with each other.

All in all, this wasn't really my thing, but it was a fairly quick read and, at the end of the day, I did want to know how it would finish.½

This book is a young adult novel. A coming of age adventure quest story. It is about two 19 year old girls trying to return a fiddle to whom they believe is the owner. Along their hitchhiking route from Kentuky to California, they encounter characters that I didn't learn very much about , despite their detailed descriptions. Most were manipulative members of 'The Group'. An anti-corporate corporation who preaches hippie ideals to wandering souls taking advantage of people wanting to belong with violence and lies.

The ideas in this book are interesting- unfortunately it was not fully developed. The story leaps along on scattered incidents. I did not like either one of the main characters, they were shallow and selfish. I did not care if they managed to escape their poorly thought out decisions. The only thing that did peak my interest was the mysterious history of the fiddle which was never thoroughly explained.½

A mess of a novel about two 19-year old girls, best friends, who rescue a stolen fiddle at a 1972 Kentucky folk-music festival, and decide to return it to its owner, Charlie Cyr, who is also the boyfriend of Anna's sister. The quest takes them across country toward California; along the way they become enmeshed with a cult of sorts called the Group, which counts Charlie and Anna's sister Daria among their members. There is also an encounter in Las Vegas with a middle-aged lecherous shrink, and $60,000 in gambling winnings which the Group leader, Fletcher Hughes has targeted along with the Fiddle. This is a road novel through a stereotyped America of the early '70's, with nary a single intelligent or sympathetic character (Anna comes closest), a self-actualization cult that seems to be omipotent, omniscient and omnipresent, and a series of concluding events that do little to tie together any of the myriad pieces presented to the reader. And the Fiddle itself is often hinted to be quite old and valuable; it would have been good to learn of its origins at least. As it is, the reader is left knowing very little about any of these characters motivations, and not caring very much either. Its only redeeming value is a nostalgic one; 1972 was a pivotal year in my own youth.½

I wanted to like this book more than I did.
I felt as if this were a sort of teenage Thelma and Louise romp through cults,
off the radar music and the past. I tried to care about Cindy and Anna, or Daria or Charlie
or anyone really. When characters vanished or died I couldn't have cared less.

The story had no flow in my opinion. It seemed stuttering and disjointed and bland.
I was just anxious for it to be over.

Perhaps someone who wasn't "there" in the seventies would like it more? Or maybe someone who was more "there" than I was? Not a fun or even remotely enjoyable read for me. This is not to say that it won't be for you.

But really, Thelma and Louise did it better, or at least with more imagination and interest.½