Friday, June 27, 2008

#50 - The Queen of the Big Time


Book No: 50
Title: The Queen of the Big Time
Author: Adriana Trigiani
Genre: Fiction
Published: 2004
Obtained: 2004/Audible.com
Completed: 6/26/08
No. of Pages: N/A
Rating: 3.5/5*****

Adriani Trigiani revisits the theme of Italian immigrants in her story of Nella Castelluca and her family. Roseta is a small Italian community in Pennsylvania where Nella lives on the farm with her parents and four sisters. It is the early 1920’s and 15 year old Nella longs to go to school in town, and hopes to one day live there. When an accident forces Nella to give up her dreams of an education she goes to work in the local factory, where she meets two men who will become the loves of her life.

While I enjoyed much of this book I found the writing often very simplistic and there seemed to be huge gaps in the storyline. Certain characters are very well developed at first and then seem to fade away. Also toward the end the book seems to fly through the years. However the story of Nella and her determination was often enjoyable, and brought a tear to my eye more than once. I loved her Big Stone Gap books more, and this one wasn’t quite as good, but it wasn’t a bad read either.

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