Reviewer Sandra Shwayder Sanchez: Sandra is
a retired attorney and co-founder of a small non-profit publishing
collective: The Wessex Collective with whom she has published two short fiction collections
(A Mile in These Shoes and Three Novellas) and one
novel, Stillbird.
Her most recent novel, The Secret of A Long Journey is soon to be released by Floricanto Press in April 2012 and her first novel, The Nun, originally published by Plain View Press in 1992 is being reissued in a 2nd Edition with additional material by PVP in March 2012.
Click Here To Purchase Dino's Story: A Novel of 1960s Tuscany
Author: Paul Salsini
Publisher: iUniverse,
Inc.
ISBN: 978-1-4502-1080-5
Having lived in Tuscany
(although not in Florence) the summer & early fall of 1966
and having fond memories of harvesting grapes during the day and
sitting around the dinner table at Il Mullinaccio Della Strega trying
to follow several conversations in Italian and two kinds of English
(British and American) I looked forward to this book with eager
anticipation and it did not disappoint. I was, as I had hoped
to be, transported to Italy in the sixties.
The book
opens with the leisurely pace and cadence of the small Tuscan village
of Sant Antonio and lays the foundation for Dino’s journey from
boyhood to manhood. The pace picks up when he moves to Florence to
study art and at the end moves along at the same fast and furious
pace as the torrential rains and flooding Arno River. In this way the
story builds in intensity like a symphony.
Dino (short
for Aldebrandino) is at the hub of several heartwrenching stories. It
is his task to find a long missing uncle but when he does he wants to
shelter his mother from the sad truth of the man’s alcoholic and
impoverished life. He meets an urban priest who does his best to help
the poor of the city, working at a soup kitchen and providing shelter
and inspiring Dino to want to do the same. Dino can’t decide
whether or not to mail letters he writes to a young girl back home
who also writes and hides letters to him. He tries to understand
other young women he meets in Florence. He discovers that in addition
to his talent for painting he has a talent for music. He works
various jobs and thereby meets a future friend and mentor with his
own mysterious story, a gentle giant of a football player who is the
beloved of a wealthy, oft married and widowed principessa who
hosts “salons” for working people as well as sophisticated art
collectors in her palazzo promptly at 7:38pm (a reason is rumored).
All the characters, no matter how brief
their sojourn in these pages, have complex background stories
that explain so much about them. This is masterful writing. And even
better the book serves an important social function in its graphic
description of how the poorest of the city are affected by natural
disaster. It is very timely given the recent floods, hurricanes, and
earthquakes that have similarly destroyed the lives of the poorest
residents where these disasters have occurred. In the wake
of the flood, Dino and his friend Tomasso Nozzoli come up with a plan
that will help a lot of people in a lot of ways. Were Paul
Salsini to run for a place in city gov’t I’d want to vote for
him. Meantime, I recommend Dino’s Story to
lots of readers whether you are interested in Italy, the 60s, music,
art, love, politics or all of the above.
Click Here To Purchase Dino's Story: A Novel of 1960s Tuscany