Ondaatje clearly did a lot of research, and he‘s a master at creating images, and in this case, images of London in the aftermath of WWII and of shadowy characters. Spoiler alert: It was unclear to me at the end why Nathaniel wouldn‘t have taken some kind of action, learning that he had a child and that the knowledge had been kept from him. As a reader I felt confused and unsatisfied by his lack of action.

I kept waiting for this book to go somewhere. I skipped a lot of it, trying to figure out if it was going to get better. The endless mundane dialogue was tedious. The names of the characters were contrived. It was as if the author was trying too hard to make too many of the names weird and unusual. No strong narrative arc and no particular take-away for the reader.

I may need to read this a second time. The descriptions of Italy, and the settings of the scenes were excellent. The love story was well done, but it did not leave me sobbing, as apparently it has done for many readers. It can really depend what place we‘re in when we read a book,how we react to it.

I‘d love to hear what your reaction was to it!

I plan to see the movie.

It is very pertinent for the current climate in the US, because Brene Brown examines how and why we are so divided and she encourages us instead to recognize our connections.

Take aways for me: we have to brave to show up, to be truly present, and this requires vulnerability.

“The foundation of courage is vulnerability”

Hi everyone, I wanted to share my book— it‘s my first and it came out in spring of 2017.

It‘s a travel memoir about my long-distance walk on Italy‘s pilgrimage route. It‘s been called “a Love sonnet to Italy” and “ruggedly adventuresome and profoundly spiritual”.