The premise is enticing enough though -- young starlet, in the early 1960's, gets knocked up by famous actor on set of famous movie before being sent to small coastal city in Italy for discretionary purposes. It's a great start, but all that comes after is varying stages of melancholy for the long list of characters, interconnected through a narrative that bounces all over time.
There are way too many characters and too many literary styles mashed into what really should have been a straightforward story. You don't get to know anyone closely, and the narrative is often interrupted with screenplay synopses, play scripts, and excerpts from unfinished novels that do more to disturb the flow of the story than drive it forward.
The back-and-forth movement through time (from past, to present, to places in the middle, and back again) works for the story when the time shifts go by chapter, but by the end, time is just a jumbled mess as the author wraps up the lives of every character, even minor ones I'd already forgotten. It's at this stage paragraphs got so long and runny, I had trouble finishing the book.
The summary of this book may tantalize you. You may think I'm being too harsh in my judgement and consider reading this book anyway...don't. Trust me when I tell you you're better off finding something else to read.
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