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La Maison Du Vent (2011)

by Titania Hardie(Favorite Author)

3.33 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

2253173371 (ISBN13: 9782253173373)

languge

English

genre

Historical Fiction

publisher

Le Livre de Poche

review 1: This is a long historical novel (just under 500 pages) that tells the story of two strong independent women who live several centuries apart, one in modern day San Francisco, the other in medieval times in Tuscany Italy.Maddie Moretti is a young, smart human rights lawyer with a small law firm. They are currently working on a long legal case involving a company whose present day production practices are believed to be seriously affecting the health of their workers. Maddie’s story starts the day she leaves work for a one week holiday as she prepares to welcome her fiancé Chris a physican from England to the United States to meet her family. Her preparations are interrupted by a transatlantic call during which she discovers he has been killed by a drunk driver in a terri... moreble car accident. Devastated, she tries to regain at least a tenuous foothold on her life and career, but she is clearly struggling. Isabella her grandmother, anxious for Maddie to seek happiness rather than be dissolved in grief, sends her to Tuscany to get her away from her stressful job, and hopefully provide an opportunity for her to connect with her Italian roots. Isabella hopes that by getting Maddie to look at her past she will be helped to face and begin a new future after Chris’s death. Maddie for her part, is anxious to be touched by the world once more, and so thankfully accepts the plane ticket to visit one of Isabella’s friends who is restoring a villa in Tuscany. The second story line travels several years back in time to 14th century Tuscany. Maria Maddalena (known as Mia) lives in Saint Pietro, in a large manor house managed by her Aunt Jacquetta who is also her adopted mother. The manor house serves as a refuge for pilgrims who stop on the way to Rome at the Shrine of Galgano and the nearby Abbey. Mia who is just a teenager, is not only an orphan but is also mute after the traumatic death of her mother. She loves her Aunt with whom she is very close and tries to help her with odd jobs around the villa. One evening an unusual couple arrives at the manor door under mysterious circumstances. The couple do not give their names and simply ask for shelter. Jacquetta admits them without question and they shortly become a part of the household.From these beginnings the two narratives unfold, with Maddie and Mia each working through their personal tragedies. The stories unravel a slow moving and meandering plot, full of long descriptive passages and tangents that explore everything from astronomy to unicorns. Hardie enmeshes us in references to legal maneuvers, Keat’s poetry, unexpected weather conditions, medieval medicine, complicated historical gardens, and corrupt church politics, as well as folklore, superstition, myth and pagan rituals. There is a lot of detail here, which drags the story at times making it long and at times ponderous. More time could have been spent filling in some interesting gaps. For example, the political background of Old Volterra in Tuscany with its warring families and bishops was complicated and could have been presented much more simply. In contrast to that, the story of the legal trial which was a major crux of Maddie’s narrative and for which pages have been written documenting the details of collecting the necessary evidence is just glossed over. And more time cold have been spent on Mia, as the conclusion of her story jumps precipitously seventeen years, leaving the reader unsatisfied after so many pages at such a slow pace.The volume explores several themes: how uncaring corporate greed with its cavalier disregard for human lives may affect generations to come; the difficult challenges women take on to find meaningful lives despite the odds against them; the fact that terrible things happen to people who really do not deserve them; that events in the present often reflect those in the past and that finding out about forgotten times sometimes facilitates our understanding of who we are and helps us heal after difficult and even horrific events.I found the alternating story lines difficult at times, especially at the beginning when I just seemed to get into one women’s life and the chapter ended abruptly as I was jarringly pulled to another time and place. This improved as the novel continued when the passages of time before each leap back or forward in time were longer.The predictability of the plot line, its pat conclusion and the convenient coincidences also stretch believability at times. Yes, I know this is fiction, but this can be annoying and distracting when it is pushed too far. There were some parts that I really did enjoy: the meals in Tuscany sounded delicious; the details about the plague that swept Europe killing thousands, was realistic and well researched and the details of medieval medicine and the precursor of cleanliness as a way to manage disease (long before Nightingale) were all of interest. This is not a book I would recommend. I think it might have benefitted from a tighter edit to reduce some of the descriptions and pick up the plot drag. However I did stick to it, finished it and must say that it is not without merit. For those who like historical fiction, stories with a hint of folklore and myth and a long (sometimes complicated) read, this may be just for you. And as an aside it is interesting to know that the Borgo Santo Pietro is an inn that really does exist today!!!
review 2: Two parallel stories. One takes place in the 1300's, Italy. The other, present day, dividing between the States and Italy. Has a very mystical bent. This isn't usually a genre that I find appealing and it applies to this book also. It wasn't a page turner but held enough sway for me to finish this mini tome...or maybe it just felt like a tome because it wasn't exciting. The parts in Italy were the more interesting. less

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