Executor Books

Thomas Holley Chivers was a Poe-apologist, whose praise for the American author was so laudatory and exaggerated, his biography of Poe was not worthwhile. Chivers, like many others, depicted Griswold as the "bad guy," an awful, vindictive man who took advantage of his own influence in order to bury Poe's reputation alongside his still warm corpse. Joseph Wood Krutch presented another side, where Griswold was not bad but sincere, and Poe apologists like Chivers should get a grip on reality. It seemed the truth was lying somewhere in between.

Then there is Joy Bayless's biography of Griswold, the last piece of the puzzle. The full story of Gris, the "Grand Turk," is a story of tragedy, difficulty, and confusion. A "solitary soul" drifting through Vermont, New York, Philadelphia, Griswold became the preeminent scholar of American poetry at a time when Americans were reading European poetry (or imitators of European poetry like Longfellow). His anthologies, including so many names now forgotten to history, were substantial and popular, though no longer relevant today. The man exuded power and influence, while facing a difficult personal life, the loss of his beloved first wife and the strange circumstances of his second wife. A religious man embattled in public scandal (not the least of which was his infamous Poe "Memoir" but there certainly were others), the reader of Bayless's book can't help but feel a twinge of sympathy towards Griswold the man - especially when reading of the circumstances after his death.

The book is substantially biased, presenting Griswold sympathetically throughout as a good man who ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time. Even with that bias, however, Griswold is still read as an angry, vindictive, cutthroat man who would sell away his own daughter if the opportunity presented itself. The reader will be skeptical, certainly, but the story of Griswold is fascinating and adds another dimension of confusion to the whole Poe's literary executor question. This book should be put back in print!

The task of managing estate property for loved ones who can no longer live alone or for those who have recently passed on can be daunting for estate trustees and surviving spouses alike, but to the rescue comes "What's Left? Who's Left?", a practical, complete guide that can help organize the process.

Written by Teresa Pedicino, a layperson who encountered many of the scenarios discussed in the book in her own life, "What's Left? Who's Left?" is an easy-to-understand manual on fiscal and ethical responsibility that is sure to be a godsend to many who cannot afford - or trust - the small amount of professionals whose million-dollar words do little to help ease the fears of the unaccustomed.

Some of the subjects Pedicino covers are: wills and probate, trusts, property ownership and transfer, investment brokers and brokerage accounts, hiring an attorney and tax preparation. As well: social security, Medicare and Medicaid, orphaned children and estat! e planning.

In addition to this advice comes the inclusion of 45 tear-out record worksheets, which round out this book's comprehensive presentation. A sampling: safe deposit box inventory record, financial accounts basis and transfer record, mortgage or rent payment record, funeral and related expense record, and estate summary.

"What's Left? Who's Left?" is a great starting point for anyone new to the complicated game of overseeing the legal and financial affairs of someone else.

Janet Malcolm is really unique. Her book is never a conventional biography of Plath, but a study of the things that were not written by Hugues, an exam of every other book on Sylvia Plath and a brilliant anaylisis of the literary biographic genre and literary biographies readers. Besides, her style is so concise and it has an inner rythm and you feel as if you were reading a thriller. And there is something really Davoine or Lacanian in her approach, because she shows the inner sides, the difficulties, the doubts and the reverse of everything she touches. You can see Ted Hugues hidding himself and divided between the two masters he has to serve. And in the same time, Sylvia Plath is there, in every page, the Silent Woman. Terrific.

After reading everything about everything on Plath, it was refreshing to finally come across something unique and different such as,"The Silent Woman." In fact, one needs to read this book before they read anything else about Plath--- so they are informed and do not waste their time on the many false, unauthorized trash out there. One could say that "The Silent Woman" is a kind of rich almanac into Plath's secret, exquisite, dark world--and the people who loved and despised her. It is not a biography--but more of a journey to find truth.

I loved getting to know more about Olwlyn Hughes (typically English), and of course Ted Hughes. And "The Silent Woman" helps the reader to understand why they are as protective as they are about Plath. (I would not have taken a liking to Olwlyn and can understand why Plath disliked her.)

"The main problem with S.P. biographers is they they fail...They can caricature and remake S.P. in the image of their foolish fantasies, and get away with it--they assume, in their brainless way, that it's perfectly O.K. to give me the same treatment--apparently forgetting that I'm still here" --TED HUGHES

Come on people--have some common sense, some decency. How would you feel if your family displayed all their dirty laudry outside for all the world to see? And Plath has lots of dirty laudry--but don't we all? Suicide-adultry-mental illness-the list could go on forever.

I like Janet Malcom--her writing style, her references to Mr.Frued, and her surprising insights. I like the way she created something new from all of the hundreds of the same. After all, Plath was much too complex to be a carbon copy of something else.

Attention all Plath lovers---Read this book before you pick up anything else about Plath. The only exception would be "The Unbridged Journals of Sylvia Plath" -(superbly stunning) and directly from the horse's mouth. Now, this gem could be read before reading "The Silent Woman" beforehand!

Despite itself, an excellent book on Sylvia Plath. Who knows the truth about the enigmatic, "silent woman" of the book's title? No one, perhaps, not even that woman herself, who was mixed up about the kind of poetry she wanted to write and about her destiny, even her citizenship was fluid. Although Janet Malcolm wrote this book to prick holes in biographies of Plath that seek to canonize her, she really sinks her teeth into Anne Stevenson's repellent and semi-authorized biography "Bitter Fame," which on its publication was widely seen as the Hughes' camo corrective to Plath hagiography. Malcolm finds out exactly what information Olwyn Hughes was willing to share with Anne Stevenson, and which slant was verboten, and the whole shameful affair, while not the superb intellectual condemnation of biography that Malcolm thinks it is, is stimulating on nearly every page. And in the process Malcolm tracks down and interviews some important people in the Hughes/Plath saga, and even makes room for Plath's most important critic, the UK theorist Jacqueline Rose. All in all, it's a mixed bag, and Malcolm is pretty repellent, but oddly enough it's exciting from start to finish.

Malcolm has written a great book on the difficulties of writing a good and fair biography. She uses Sylvia Plath, and specifically Anne Stevenson's Bitter Fame as her example. What you get here is an interesting book that engages the reader and at times almost reads like a novel. The book is gripping and before you know it, you've finished it. Also, Malcolm claims to be on the "side" of Ted Hughes, but I still think she gives a fairly balanced view of the whole situation. But, this isn't a biography of Sylvia Plath. This is a biography of a biography.

THE SILENT WOMAN: SYLVIA PLATH AND TED HUGHES by Janet Malcolm is a biography through the lens of what's wrong with biography. It's fascinating to Plath fans and afficionados (me) and those who want to examine language, text and form and the barriers between whatever truth is and the outcomes of communication (me again).

Malcolm is explicit in her premise: A biography had been written of Plath by Malcolm's University of Michigan cohort, Anne Stevenson (Bitter Fame), that had been controversial. Plath loyalists fulminated against Stevenson's pro-Hughes bias, and the Hughes family denounced it because they said that Stevenson had not cooperated enough. Malcolm, who looked up to the slightly older Stevenson at U of M, who is also a poet of some standing, follows the process of the Plath biography, as well as other works on the famous poet and the machinations/efforts of her former husband and Plath's literary estate executor, Hughes's sister, Olwyn. Malcolm interviews many of the participants, including Olwyn, but not Ted Hughes, and works not to find a "right" or "wrong" but to understand the issues with biography that can create the problems of trying to portray another's life. In the process, she exhibits more on the life of Hughes and Plath that fascinates those who are interested in such things. She couldn't have chosen a better example/subject to use for this dissection, because their lives are compelling, and the drama around how those lives have been portrayed by others -- including the impression management on the Hughes side, which was no small matter -- seem never ending.

Malcolm writes, "In a work of nonfiction, we almost never know the truth of what happened" (p 154). Malcolm faces this issue squarely and doesn't try to make a definitive statement about what did or didn't happen between Hughes and Plath, Plath and others, the Hughes estate and her various biographers. Instead she narrates her investigation, her own biases, and the flaws and quandaries that exist at every point along the way. Stevenson's troubles, the reader comes to see, may just be a strong form of the problems and doubts all biographers could -- and should? -- experience.

In the end, one gets the sense that the Hughes family worked perhaps too hard to control the impression of Ted after the suicide of his up-and-coming poet wife in the early 1960s (though who could blame him after he was villified and blamed for her suicide by those who took public "sides" in their marital discord, and he stated that he was also quite worried about his children's perceptions of their mother, family and selves if there was a free-for-all regarding Plath's literary and personal legacy). Ted and Olwyn were negative even toward literary scholars who interpreted Plath's poetry in ways objectionable to them and made working with the estate for very necessary quoting rights quite difficult. As Malcolm depicts Stevenson after her book's publication and the ensuing hue and cry, her break with the Hughes family and Plath estate and her reaction to same as wilted and beaten down. The book seems as if it were a tragedy in her professional life from which she must recover because of the interpersonal drama between the author and Olwyn Hughes.

Interestingly, the book also has a strong subtheme that examines the pressures, pains and stress of accomplishment by literary women born in the 40s who came of age in the 60s. (There's a brief discussion of Stevenson's marriages, and the impact her literary ambitions had on her family life.) Stevenson and Malcolm are around the same age as Plath, and this personal investment in the times and age is also fascinating from a political-gender point of view.

If I had any complaint about the work, which was an expansion of a lengthy New Yorker article that was printed in the 90s, it is that it ends too suddenly. After all the activity and investigation, I wanted Malcolm to make sense of it all for me, but the book just seems to cut off after Malcolm meets a man integral to the Plath suicide narrative, her downstairs neighbor, who may have been the last to see her alive.

Malcolm is a conversational and somewhat "confessional" feeling writer who is not afraid to be explict about her personal investment and lens that engages the reader and makes her feel an insider in this investigation of femininity, biography, rhetoric and one of the lightning rods of gender relations in the 20th century. I recommend it on any one of these levels.

I really, really wanted to like this. I didn't know what to expect, and I was eager for the book to go in many different directions. [Cuzzy, an 18 year old father going nowhere fast, meets a flamboyant, charasmatic educated drifter named Tracy, who sort of gives Cuzzy a job, while residing in his (we are lead to believe) lovers families home. A relationship ensues. To see what kind you'll have to read it] To say the characters were rushed, had no depth, and were frustratingly incoherent with the world around them, is an understatement. There really is no momentum, the plot doesen't go anywhere, and I don't think the author wanted it to go anywhere. The insert flap says the relationship between the two main characters is "the focus of scrutiny and debate". Say what? If the debate were from some ignorant, blue collar, beer guzzling neanderthals, well then it was stereotyping rather than scrutiny. Other than that there is no real conflict. Is there a clear difference?

The author however, really does a fine job keeping you on your toes, just when a reader's initial pre-conceived notions about a situation is about to ensue, she throws you in a complete whirlwind of ignorance, and voila, the not so ordinary, ordinary happens, for lack of a better phrase.

I don't really know how long it took Sue to write this, but clearly the conflicts could have been so much more engaging, and thoughfully written chapters could have ensued if Cuzzy and Tracy were more tangible. I felt betrayed as a reader as I wanted to be in Cuzzy's world so badly from jumpstreet, yet never managed to really sit shotgun, just sort of was window shopping.

I think the gester on Ms. Halpern to use geology, material science, etc, as from her other non-fiction books of the matter, and bring it into the pre-chapters as non-binding intro's was refreshing, and to have Cuzzy with really no aspirations or intellectual stimualtion, know so much about Nature, was very pleasing. However again, falling short on Cuzzy as a person I wanted to know, the knowledge he had of Nature was not very beliveable, and as a reader I so wanted to believe he would make more out of his life than trucking rubble perhaps and we are led to believe, even in the end that nothing will change for this young man.

Donna Seaman's statement that Halpern's gripping tale about life's myriad hardships astutely considers the dangers inherent in cross cultural exploration, is giving the book accolades which it CLEARLY does not deserve. Tracy's introducing Cuzzy to a world so foreign to him, was merely passe and out of context with trying to actually show Cuzzy could perhaps have an inherent interest in these things.

In closing, it started off really intriguing, then drops off and falls hard and never seems to find solid ground again. The ending, albeit very unexpected and refreshing in a sense, is rushed and dissapointing, and that was a real shame.

I have been a fan of Sue Halpern's writing since Migrations to Solitude. I found this books as I searched this site for new works from authors I respect. My introduction to the book was as a reader of the reviews on this site.

I'll admit it, I was confused. How could Sue Halpern write so haphazardly or gratuitously as some reader comments suggest. I usd those reviews as guides through the book and found none of the disappointment one would anticipate after reading such negative stuff.

I'm no critic. I'm a reader, and I am also an Adirondacker of sorts. I think that what might have startled some readers is the gentle and flowing Ms. Halpern is not so gentle in this novel. It does flow well, in my estimation. What is missed is what makes her writing work time and time again, the quality that prevails in all her writing: honest portrayal of subject matter.

If you are looking to be swept away into bucholic bliss in a quaint Adirondack setting, run from this book. If you are looking for a compelling story that is so absolutely true to what life can really be like in a small Adirondack town, buy this book!

Sue caputures what is a particular lonliness and longing that casts its shadow as often as not on the youth of Adriondack towns living far from what most of us understand as community life. The characters, every one of them, are portrayed with honesty and can easily be found in almost any small, remote town. Not fun stuff, but the real McCoy.

She doesn't pretend for a moment to lead anywhere other than the theme of hardness, from the title to the various themes that set each chapter, she leads us to despair and hope and back again to the inevidible hardness that is created by not being able to get away.

Some were unhappy with plots undeveloped, for example the fact that the tree house goes unexamined after its miraculous finding. That wasn't,in my estimation, undeveloped or faulty. It was the undeniablilty of the randomness, the wandering of existence and circumstance of such a place.

The scary part for me is the absolute possibility of the brutalness of the ending of the book. It wasn't gratuitous or unnecessary. It was born of hardness, of the rigidness of boredom and the desire for excitement and change...just about any change in otherwise listless lives.

And as for the ending...don't forget, Cuzzy ends up knocking on that door (you'll have to read it to know where I am going). His time with Tracy was one of growth and even through the tragedy of a brutal loss of life he is lead to a greater knowledge of himself. To me, the ending can be taken two ways. One of a continued hardness,of Cuzzy capitulating to the hopelessness of isolation in a small town. But how I read it was as a positive ending. Cuzzy is willing to open up, to take a chance, to see that his life has meaning (thank you Tracy) and that maybe he can being those things he never would have discoveres without Tracy's presence to bear on his life and that of his family.

Buy this book. It is a good read. It is clear and well written. The juxtaposition of the beautiful Adirondacks with hard realities and the longings created by being so far removed from everyday America is an honest chronicle of desire and disaster. It could as easily have been called a documentary as a novel. Its power lies in what it reveals to any reader believing that the Adirondacks is only of beauty and peace. Great book.

The novel has some very compelling character portraits.

However, I was surprised to read the review in Publishers Weekly describing the book as being set in "New England logging town." It's in fact set in the Adirondack Mountains, which are in New York state.

but then all the sudden it turned weird and boring and I skimmed through the rest. I was disgusted with the ending, so very horrid and disgusting. I am glad the book is over and I will think twice before picking up one of Ms Halpern's books again.

I picked up Sue Halpern's "The Book of Hard Things" with great anticipation, and was immediately taken with the setting, characters, and plot. Unfortunately, my initial pleasure in the writing turned to frustration, as several key plot points went unresolved. The main characters, an educated man of ambiguous sexuality and the poor country boy he befriends search throughout the novel for the man's dead friend's beloved treehouse. They find it, but never get around to entering it, begging the question: Why was it so special? Why spend precious pages on a plot point that has no resolution? In a sub-plot, a local minister visits the boy's father, who shows him notes on a book he says the minister is destined to write, but it's never mentioned again. What does it all mean? The pleasantly rambling narrative ends with a scene of pointless brutality, leaving one character dead, and the others seemingly unchanged by the last 230 pages. Ms. Halpern may have a career as a novelist ahead of her, but I won't be along for the ride.

You can tell this book was written by a lawyer. He is very confusing and tries to make will and estates complicated. In order to understand this book one needs to already have a knowledge of will and trusts and if you already do then why would you buy this book. Seems as though every paragraph or chapter tells you to make sure you secure the services of a lawyer. There are many unanswered questions in every section and he is not as thorough as he could be. I previewed at the library and was planning to purchase it as a resource book for home Fortunately I didn't waste my money. In defense of this book he does mention lots of different types of trusts that other books don't even mention. The type for people with a lot of money. Again not enough detail.

The problem seems to be that the author originally thought he was writing "The complete book of Wills and Estates" and would save Trusts for a followup book. The chapters on wills and estates are entertaining, informative, useful, and even easy to read (something I thought would never be possible in a legal book -- even a pop-level legal book). The author is able to make the legal concepts seem alive and useful through clever writing, amusing or relevant real-life scenarios, and thoughtful what-ifs.

Unfortunately, the chapter on trusts is lacking. It feels unorganized and rushed. Sections duplicate each other or sections from the previous chapters. There are no amusing anecdotes; the sample scenarios are contrived and make it harder rather than easier to pay attention -- it is at the level I expected from a pop legal book. The pacing is very poor. All of the similarly-named trusts blur into each other. There are quite a few spelling, wording, and other typographical errors in this chapter (I found none in the prior chapters).

Nonetheless, I would recommend the book for giving the details of an overview. A consultation with an actual attorney knowledgable about the laws of your state is still advisable, as the book is already out-of-date. But this will help you understand things better and have a more intelligent conversation. It will also help disabuse you of any notions that inheritance law comes close to making intuitive sense.

The book is full of practical and in depth legal concepts. Well written and organized, and even humorous with his many examples. The full course.

This book directs a person who becomes an executor of an estate to follow a path that leads to probate court. I was looking for how to administer an estate when it was in a trust. I had to buy a different book to find the answers to my questions.

Even for a lawyer who does not practice in this area of law, this book is a must-see to help you get through the often times confusing area of probate. The book is well suited to the law in any state, and is especially helpful if you are the family member who gets handed the ball after a death in your family

I am so glad I found this book. I am administrator of my moms will and had no idea how probate worked. This book helped answer a lot of questions for me. Thank you for selling this.

Though this book is easy to read, I believe that it is TOO simple-minded to be of much use for estate planning, preparing a will, settling an estate or anything else concerning death. The author clearly presumes that the reader knows absolutely nothing. More than half the book's pages are tax forms and the IRS instructions for preparing those forms (for the year 1996). Since all current forms are easily available for download from the IRS Internet site or from a local IRS office, including such old forms in the book can only serve to pad the book or to give a very general overview of the potential tax issues an executor may face. Moreover, the death tax laws since 1997 are barely mentioned. The author takes a great deal of space explaining the definitions of terms which are commonly known and giving examples which are common sense. The best and most useful part of the book is Appendix B, which lists all of the states and shows the differences between them in matters concerning wills and taxes. Few other probate books give this information. Also, I should mention that the author avoids those repeated admonitions found in every other book supposedly written for new executors: "You are too stupid to figure out how to do this job. Hire a lawyer and an accountant!" If you are only interested in a very simple overview of probate, wills, estate planning, trusts, and death taxes, then this is the book for you. If however you need details and already understand many of the issues involved, go to your library or buy another book - preferably one written within the last couple of years.

This is a good book if you don't have a lawyer in the family who can answer your probate questions. I had never even been in the courthouse and I didn't know what to expect, so I found this bok a big help. It answers the "dumb" questions that the other books skip. (My 3rd grade teacher always told me there's no such thing as a dumb question). There's also chapters on last illnesses and funerals which similar books don't have. On the other hand the tax materials seem dated, because it's an older book, but then again, if you're not a millionaire you won't be paying death taxes anyway. If you're going to serve as an executor or you're thinking about it and you can only afford to buy one book, this is the one to buy.

This book was OK. As I read it I got the feeling that it was a compilation of a community college instructor's notes he threw together to teach a course on estate administration to paralegal students. The key word in that last sentence was "threw." Although the author asserts early in the book that its purpose is to provide a basic understanding of the legal principles involved in estate work, the words used are just too sloppy and sometimes inaccurate to accomplish this goal. As a result, someone not already knowlegable about the subject matter of this book might be mislead or get the wrong impression of what estate work is about.

This book is about estate work a paralegal might be expected to do while working for an attorney who offers estate planning and estate administration services. This book talks a little about financial planning, retirement planning, estate planning, and estate administration.

In my humble opinion this book mischaracterizes financial planning and retirement planning as being related to estate planning and estate administration. Financial planning involves planning your finances while you are alive so you will accumulate assets. Retirement planning involves planning so your accumulated assets will support you after you retire. Estate planning involves planning how to transfer your wealth to others either during your life or after your death in such a way as to minimize paying wealth transfer taxes (gift, estate, and inheritance taxes). And estate administration involves legally transferring a decedent's wealth after his death and paying any wealth transfer taxes due. Law work has nothing to do with financial planning and very little to do with retirement planning.

This book seems to be written under the belief that lawyers must be a part of estate planning and estate administration. Nothing could be further from the truth! While it is true that many executors seek the help of a law firm to administer an estate, and that the law firm usually takes over the executor's duties in administering an estate, this is not a requirement. If it were, then why have an executor involved in the first place? Or why not just make lawyers executors in the first place?

Another problem I had with the book was the way probate was intertwined with the definition of estate administration. Everyone has an estate. And every estate has to be administered. But not all estates have to go through probate. There is such a thing as estate administration WITHOUT probate. And after reading this book I wouldn't know this fact.

If you are interested in reading a book about estate work a paralegal usually does, then you would do yourself a favor to read this book. This book documents how a paralegal usually does his work, but it DOES NOT document how estate work has to be done. This is probably my biggest gripe with this book. Most of what a paralegal does can be delegated back to the executor if the paralegal knew how to coach the executor. But then the law firm wouldn't be able to bill as many hours to the estate. Oh well.

I would have liked the book better if Chapter 4 regarding trusts had been more accurate and complete. And I would have liked the book better if Chapter 6 regarding Estate Planning for theElderly had been omitted. I also found it strange that the book asserted that paralegals don't usually calculate the taxes due by the estate. It's my understanding they regularly complete the tax returns and in doing so they calculate the taxes due. 3 stars!

Hmmm...I hope that when I finally visit Italy, I am not struck by such a fever! I read this book for the setting and the cultural immersion, which was beautifully and satisfyingly described, however I found the storyline to be very dark and difficult to follow, and I never really warmed up to the characters. So while I reslihed in the details, I plodded through the plot.

This book kind of reminded me of 'Room With A View' full of pleasant characters set in Italy but nothing much happens and the reader is left unsatisfied by the end. Unfortunately the writer didn't use her skills to inject any drama, or suspence or twists into the narrative.

Based on my previous reading, I know that Valerie Martin is capable of writing a great novel with a coherent, tight plot, rich characterization, and a very strong undercurrent of hidden meaning and symbolism. "Italian Fever", however, does not have any of these qualities. There is some beautiful writing about Rome in this book, and the sensual descriptions of food, art, and scenery appeal to the armchair traveller. But the gothic/mystery elements were weak and did not track coherently through the book. After reading it through twice, I was left wondering what I had missed. I know Valerie Martin is a great author, but I failed to find any depth or meaning in this book.

Sometimes the "livin' is easy," and so is the readin' found in Valerie Martin's sixth novel Italian Fever. This entertainingly erotic romp through Tuscany is buttressed with all the requisite divertissement: an illicit doomed-from-the-start affair, a mysterious death, plus a ghost.
When mega selling, meagerly talented author DV is found dead, his assistant, Lucy Stark, is dispatched to a small Tuscan village to oversee the novelist's interment and sift through his belongings. DV's sudden demise is a puzzle, as is the whereabouts of Catherine Bultman, an artist with whom he shared a remote, gloomy villa.

Lucy hopes to find the remaining chapters of DV's latest manuscript despite a disdain of his work so great that "when confronted by her employer's contributions to the world of letters," she experiences "a steady elevation of blood pressure and an involuntary clenching of the jaw that made her face ache."

Upon her arrival in Rome she is met by a representative of DV's Italian publisher - Massimo Compitelli who is, of course, blessed with the "wonderfully tan skin and thick black hair one associates with the country."

At first apparently bored and disinterested, Massimo later warms to Lucy, eventually becoming her advocate and protector. He even nurses her through a bout with an unexplainable illness that leaves her feverish and weak. But, never fear, not so weak that she cannot couple with an ardent Massimo who has tendered a sensuous massage, and then vowed that they will try hard not to break their small bed.

The farmhouse in which Lucy is staying was once owned by the Cini family, a group she considers sinister. Unable to find the actual site of or salient details concerning DV's death, she grows increasingly uneasy, disturbed by scratching sounds, and terrified by a voice she believes to be that of DV.

But these mysteries take second place to her fascination with Massimo. Once her business is complete, she agrees to meet her Italian lothario in Rome for a final two days. It is there that, thanks to the younger Cini, she finds Catherine who is "all light - golden hair, hazel eyes, pale, creamy skin." Massimo is, of course, enchanted.

Torn by jealousy and filled with desire, Lucy determines to make her last evening with her lover one "which was to burn her image ineradicably into the landscape of Massimo's memory." A decision leaving Lucy sadder, wiser, and with a greater degree of self-awareness. She was not, as she had thought "a practical, principled woman who was perfectly content to look on the folly of others with distant sympathy, but a foolish, impressionable creature, as much a prey to longings and cravings, as eager to justify her own impulsive behavior with an appeal to the sovereignty of passion over reason, as anyone else."

Passion not probity is what Ms. Martin's latest is all about, which is what may make Italian Fever contagious.

Though I was prepared to read a good novel that would bring back memories of my visits to Italy, I was quickly bored with the main character, Lucy Stark, and her self-centered yearnings and obsessions. This character clearly hadn't lived much, raised a child, lived through a famine, or experienced much suffering. Her main posture is one of feeling superior, but for no apparent reason. I was fed up with her in a hurry, and skimmed much of the book without losing anything significant. The best parts were observations about art and travelogue-like descriptions of scenes in Rome. The rest of it was the usual blather about love and lust, affairs with romantic Italians (how stereotyped and insulting!), and a "mystery" that amounted to a hill of beans. I advise looking at the beautiful Titian on the cover of the book and then quietly putting it back on the shelf. Want to read a book about affairs? Try Anna Karenina or how about Madame Bovary?

Outdated. The whole diagnosis of childhood schizophrenia is outdated. Most or all of these kids have some type of developmental disability such as Aspergers or high functioning Autism. This book is 20 years old! Amazon shouldn't even be selling this book.