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hannahdavey's review against another edition
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
timsa9cd0's review against another edition
4.0
What an interesting read, and a structure I haven't stumbled across before. The most powerful character in the novel is the fictional novelist Jan who, in a fashion, writes the novel we read. The "unreliable narrator" is taken to a different level ... or levels. Not that there is any reason to not believe her story but there is the filter of the fictional novelist between us and Valerie Martin. And we know nothing more about Jan at the end of the novel than we did at the beginning.
With that purposeful imbalance attached to the book I found myself never able to complete fall into the trance of the stories of the Salviati family, mostly told to Jan by Beatrice ("Bee-ah-tree-chay"), a terrific character whose stories make up the bulk of the novel (the remaining sections of the novel are the stories Jan tells us of her time involving Beatrice and the Salviati family which, inevitably, color Beatrice's stories). Great stories (even if a few of them were a stretch for me to buy) and combined in ingenious ways. In the end, it was a fun read, and all the levels of stories, and stories of stories, zipped me through the book. And surprising to the end.
I don't know Valerie Martin's earlier novels but I'll be looking for them (and I hope one is that Mussolini novel that Jan mentions).
With that purposeful imbalance attached to the book I found myself never able to complete fall into the trance of the stories of the Salviati family, mostly told to Jan by Beatrice ("Bee-ah-tree-chay"), a terrific character whose stories make up the bulk of the novel (the remaining sections of the novel are the stories Jan tells us of her time involving Beatrice and the Salviati family which, inevitably, color Beatrice's stories). Great stories (even if a few of them were a stretch for me to buy) and combined in ingenious ways. In the end, it was a fun read, and all the levels of stories, and stories of stories, zipped me through the book. And surprising to the end.
I don't know Valerie Martin's earlier novels but I'll be looking for them (and I hope one is that Mussolini novel that Jan mentions).
paulina_aspiringliterati's review against another edition
4.0
Italian setting brought me here and my goodness, it was such an excellent decision.
One lovely summer an American academic named Jan gets to rent out a room in a Tuscan villa. There she is to work on her book about Moussolini but ends up taking a life-long liking to espresso while she listens to stories of war-time fascism and how the volantile political climate has long been affecting Italy and its nobility.
Jan’s summer escape tenancy turns into something of a quest for objective truth. Not in a way a crazed detective cracks a case based on their ‘wall of crazy’ but in a way a persistent observer will eventually notice patterns and may see things a non-bystander never would. As she also befriends the villa’s owner Beatrice (do pronounce her name in Italian, it’s just so much better this way) and their friendship continues for years, her visits to the villa do not let up either. Each visit produces new interesting facts or observations.
This book snuck up on me. I have never before heard of the author (who apparently has won Orange Prize in the past and that is no small feat), nor have I read any of her past books. I did want to read this and picked it out on NetGalley because the cover reminded me of Italian countryside and it looked like historical fiction to me. I was right on both fronts. Interest sparked, I dived into it one night and couldn’t put it down till I hit the 30% mark. And it was nearing 4am on a work day!
Full transparency, the only character I definitely liked was Beatrice. Jan was an excellent observer, a trait a good storyteller needs to possess; unfortunately for me, she also came across as incredibly aloof and withdrawn and I’m just not a fan of this personality trait. I kept thinking she was sad all the time. That perhaps wasn’t the author’s intention or there was no particular intent in making her this or that. Still, I was desperate to know any strap of information that would tell me a thing about her aside from her work as an academic. Beatrice was an academic and how bustling with life and energy she was! But as most of the story was written from Jan’s POV, it also served for an efficient and fault-proof way to tell a story that needed to be voiced in an objective way. I understand that it wasn’t Jan’s story insomuch as she was a tool the story got to be told through. (Hence me chunking off a star what would otherwise have been a 5 star read.)
„I Give It To You” is a book you read for the real-life slow burning drama of the villa and the family that owns it. It’s a delightful story written with omnipresent penmanship skill but it is a sad one. The resentment being the chief emotion wreaking havoc on the villa and its family and it shows and it burns as you read but you also can’t get enough so you keep flipping the Kindle pages. I loved to learn much of the inner workings of Italy post-war and to read about that time in general. I have not had much of that style of storytelling - of real historical events getting intertwined with stories of people you may not like much but you nonetheless want them to be okay and free of pain. You want them to succeed and thrive.
We can safely assume that we always, whether we want to or not, choose sides. We root for one character or another. I tried not to but I did, too. Luckily it didn’t diminish my enjoyment of this book and I will remember it with great fondness, even if with a healthy dash of melancholy as well. Sadness or not however, was there ever anything more glorious than a real Italian espresso drunk with a cornetto on a side? I don’t think so. Especially if we picture two inteligent women conversing about life or nothing at all important (and yet!) in a garden of peaches, one listening closely, the other smiling indulgently.
**massive thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for providing an arc in exchange for a fair and honest review**
One lovely summer an American academic named Jan gets to rent out a room in a Tuscan villa. There she is to work on her book about Moussolini but ends up taking a life-long liking to espresso while she listens to stories of war-time fascism and how the volantile political climate has long been affecting Italy and its nobility.
Jan’s summer escape tenancy turns into something of a quest for objective truth. Not in a way a crazed detective cracks a case based on their ‘wall of crazy’ but in a way a persistent observer will eventually notice patterns and may see things a non-bystander never would. As she also befriends the villa’s owner Beatrice (do pronounce her name in Italian, it’s just so much better this way) and their friendship continues for years, her visits to the villa do not let up either. Each visit produces new interesting facts or observations.
This book snuck up on me. I have never before heard of the author (who apparently has won Orange Prize in the past and that is no small feat), nor have I read any of her past books. I did want to read this and picked it out on NetGalley because the cover reminded me of Italian countryside and it looked like historical fiction to me. I was right on both fronts. Interest sparked, I dived into it one night and couldn’t put it down till I hit the 30% mark. And it was nearing 4am on a work day!
Full transparency, the only character I definitely liked was Beatrice. Jan was an excellent observer, a trait a good storyteller needs to possess; unfortunately for me, she also came across as incredibly aloof and withdrawn and I’m just not a fan of this personality trait. I kept thinking she was sad all the time. That perhaps wasn’t the author’s intention or there was no particular intent in making her this or that. Still, I was desperate to know any strap of information that would tell me a thing about her aside from her work as an academic. Beatrice was an academic and how bustling with life and energy she was! But as most of the story was written from Jan’s POV, it also served for an efficient and fault-proof way to tell a story that needed to be voiced in an objective way. I understand that it wasn’t Jan’s story insomuch as she was a tool the story got to be told through. (Hence me chunking off a star what would otherwise have been a 5 star read.)
„I Give It To You” is a book you read for the real-life slow burning drama of the villa and the family that owns it. It’s a delightful story written with omnipresent penmanship skill but it is a sad one. The resentment being the chief emotion wreaking havoc on the villa and its family and it shows and it burns as you read but you also can’t get enough so you keep flipping the Kindle pages. I loved to learn much of the inner workings of Italy post-war and to read about that time in general. I have not had much of that style of storytelling - of real historical events getting intertwined with stories of people you may not like much but you nonetheless want them to be okay and free of pain. You want them to succeed and thrive.
We can safely assume that we always, whether we want to or not, choose sides. We root for one character or another. I tried not to but I did, too. Luckily it didn’t diminish my enjoyment of this book and I will remember it with great fondness, even if with a healthy dash of melancholy as well. Sadness or not however, was there ever anything more glorious than a real Italian espresso drunk with a cornetto on a side? I don’t think so. Especially if we picture two inteligent women conversing about life or nothing at all important (and yet!) in a garden of peaches, one listening closely, the other smiling indulgently.
**massive thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for providing an arc in exchange for a fair and honest review**
waregemma's review against another edition
3.0
I kept feeling like this book was circling around a really good story.
annarella's review against another edition
5.0
I really enjoyed this story and I strongly recommend it.
The storytelling is excellent, the characters are fleshed out and interesting, the historical background is realistic and vivid.
I loved how well the author wrote her characters and their story.
It's an excellent read and I strongly recommend it.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.
The storytelling is excellent, the characters are fleshed out and interesting, the historical background is realistic and vivid.
I loved how well the author wrote her characters and their story.
It's an excellent read and I strongly recommend it.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.
kendallinge's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
kali's review against another edition
5.0
This was my first Valerie Martin book and I will be keen to delve into her backlist, as I really enjoyed this story set in Tuscany (and a bit in the US). A creative writing academic spends her summers at a colleague's colleague's Villa, and over the years learns stories of the former aristocratic family and their downfall after the fascist regime. In particular, Jan is intrigued by the story of Beatrice's uncle Sandro who was murdered in the driveway of the villa, and this story and his ghost are threaded through the novel. Ghosts of stories. What is real, and what is fictionalised? Even when we receive stories from our ancestors they are partial, or reframed to shape how they became the inheritor of such stories. And what happens when we share those stories with others -- are they no longer ours, even if they are significantly remodelled and reimagined? I love the parallels drawn between property and stories here. So much of the tragedy of this family saga comes from the right to directly inherit, and the means used to control those lines of inheritance. And interlopers, who divert the course of a property's story.
mylogicisfuzzy's review against another edition
4.0
This is a novel about family, friendship and the power of storytelling. Beatrice, a descendant of once wealthy Italian aristocratic family rents a cottage by her family’s Tuscan villa to Jan, an American novelist and college professor. Jan, in Italy to research for a book on Mussolini, becomes more interested in stories about Beatrice’s family, especially stories from WWII. Noting her interest, Beatrice tells Jan “I give it to you” after one particular story. Over the course of the summer and the years that follow, the two women become friends, meeting every now and then in the US where Beatrice also teaches Italian at a university and sometimes back at the villa in Tuscany. Interspersed with the times they spend together are stories of Beatrice’s family that span the course of the twentieth century.
Initially, I was very much drawn to the title of the book. Publisher’s description was also intriguing, conveying certain expectations. So I was reading expectantly and soon found myself drawn in and very much enjoying the book but for completely different reasons. The story of the Salviati family and of Beatrice’s life was fascinating, she is a very well realised character. This is a very good summer read, the landscape, the people, the wonderful Italian food. Great lockdown escapism albeit set against the backdrop of Mussolini and fascism and Italy’s post-war recovery. A compelling story, beautifully told.
My thanks to Serpent’s Tail, Profile Books and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review I Give It To You.
Initially, I was very much drawn to the title of the book. Publisher’s description was also intriguing, conveying certain expectations. So I was reading expectantly and soon found myself drawn in and very much enjoying the book but for completely different reasons. The story of the Salviati family and of Beatrice’s life was fascinating, she is a very well realised character. This is a very good summer read, the landscape, the people, the wonderful Italian food. Great lockdown escapism albeit set against the backdrop of Mussolini and fascism and Italy’s post-war recovery. A compelling story, beautifully told.
My thanks to Serpent’s Tail, Profile Books and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review I Give It To You.
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