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La Bottega Dei Sogni Smarriti (2014)

by Beth Hoffman(Favorite Author)

3.92 of 5 Votes: 2

languge

English

genre

Fiction

publisher

Piemme

review 1: Not often does a writer manage to pull off a story with a sophisticated urban setting AND a rural and wilderness one, but Beth Hoffman did just that. I knew this book should be right up my alley as the main character, Teddi Overman, owns an antique shop in Charleston, South Carolina. I happen to love Charleston and antiques and have worked in a furniture store myself, so I figured I could relate to the character. There's also the old house aspect - you can't have a story set in Charleston without alluding to the wonderful architecture. But I didn't expect (especially judging by the cover) that this book would deal so evocatively with the wilderness and those who love it. As a nature buff myself who is now living closer to the wild, I found even more to draw me in. This... more just wasn't a cute chick lit story about refurbishing antiques and finding romance in Charleston. Teddi comes from a farm in Kentucky near the Red River Gorge and it's the story of her roots and family there that is at the heart of this novel. Hoffman's writing shows her love for the land, tamed and untamed, and for wildlife. Through flashbacks we find that Teddi has left her home in Kentucky at seventeen to escape the plans her mother has for her and to follow her dream of restoring and selling furniture. She leaves behind a younger brother who has an affinity with nature and animals and who, in his turn, is expected to follow in his father's footsteps and take over the farm. This book is centered on this conflict of parental expectations and following one's own path. Teddi tries to restore a relationship with her mother after leaving home, but her mother is dealing with lost expectations of her own. The family is nearly torn apart by the disappearance of Josh, Teddi's brother, who has vanished into the wilderness and left a note to Teddi telling her not to try to find him. Josh is never found and Teddi can't resolve her loss not knowing whether he is alive or dead. We come to learn that Teddi's parents have earlier suffered a loss of a different kind stemming from the psychological damages of war and dealing with disappointment that life didn't turn out as expected. In her suffering at the disappearance of Josh, Teddi's mother lashes out in anger and blame at the ones closest to her. Loss, guilt, and fierce love binds them together. The mystery at the heart of this novel is the disappearance of Josh and whether he could still be alive after all these years and no reports of him. Other than that, there's really not much plot. Fortunately, I found the main character's life and relationships engaging, but for someone less interested in furniture and antiques, it might not be as compelling. The narrative jumps back and forth in time, and this is one of my main grievances with the book. It's not very clear, especially in the beginning, what time frame we're in. It would have been easier if, as in the latter chapters of the book, the date of the 'present,' which was in the 90's, was put in the chapter headings. There were a couple of minor context clues in the beginning that put it in the 90's if you were paying attention, but, since it jumped in location as well as time, I was never quite sure when the present was. Still in the 90's or more contemporary? How old is the character now? How much time has actually passed since Josh disappeared? Sometimes dates were given for chapters in the past, sometimes not. With all the hopscotching back and forth, I found it far from seamless and needlessly confusing.Teddi is a likeable heroine who clings to a seemingly futile hope but still manages to go about her life. I'm not quite sure where the title of the book came from. She is a character who from a young age seems to have a strong concept of her own identity. In discovering more about her family, she does learn more about herself, at least in understanding family dynamics. Sometimes her life, as the different timelines and settings, feels disparate. It's as if Hoffman is trying to do too much in one book. Is it a cute fixer-upper romantic story like a Mary Kay Andrews' novel or a deeper tale of building a positive life in the shadow of loss and suffering? Perhaps if it hadn't been so disparate, she could have given more attention to Josh's story, which while appealing was not convincing. Could he possibly still be alive? I found myself thinking that no one, especially a young person without resources, could disappear and survive in the wilderness for that many years. I'd remember stories about survivalists who would steal food and supplies to get by. But Josh is never seen and no unexplained thefts are reported. How does one survive for years in the wild with no replacement clothes or shoes or tools? He had been a teenager when he disappeared. Had he read enough in books to know how to tan hides or would he have killed an animal for its coat? Alas, I'm perhaps too practical minded for such a romantic idea. Still, Hoffman's treatment of Josh in his identifying with native American lore, his reverence for and affinity with wild creatures, and his spiritual awakening is compelling. This book has a lot going for it, but its flaws kept it from being a five star for me.
review 2: I grabbed this thinking it would be a light southern-style quirky novel. And it was in some ways. I also found it to be underscored by melancholy, a deeply touching study of family disfunction and loss over several generations. The protagonist is pretty entertaining if occasionally 2-d and with great gaps in her development/history- but her Kentucky farm family, Charleston Antique store and society, inability to communicate with her mother, a missing brother with an mystical attachment to nature, have a nice authenticity (ok - the brother is a little overwrought) folksy neighbors, best friends, street people, a highly populated little novel that made me laugh and cry. Maybe the melodrama and entertainment value were just what I needed this round. less

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