RENATO'S LUCK

The waterworks man in a small Tuscan town threatened by change seeks to regain his gusto: a sweet but slight fable by

first-time author and American expatriate Shapiro. For a flock of reasons, Renato Tizzoni’s world has suddenly gone all wrong, changing from glorious Technicolor to dreary black-and-white. For one thing, his hometown, Sant’Angelo D’Asso, has been doomed by a government dam project; for another, his 17-year-old daughter is in love with a boy he disapproves of; a beloved friend and mentor, besides, has just died; Renato’s taste for food, wine, and even for Milena, his beloved wife of 20 years, is waning; and he’s been disturbed by a strange dream in which a hand wearing a ring with a red stone leads him to a treasure. He interprets the dream to mean that his luck will change if he goes to Rome to visit the Pope, and his plan soon becomes grist for the town gossip mill, a bottega (combination bar, restaurant, and grocery store) owned by his in-laws. In a series of short chapters whose titles foretell their content, Renato recounts daily events and meets up with the locals: among them, the stunning English actress who leads him into “Temptation”; the American friend who reveals a love affair in a soul-baring conversation about “The Edge of a Breast”; and his parents” skeletons, which, in “Old Bones,” Renato must move to make room for the more recent dead. Along the way, he collects his compatriots” words of wisdom on a slip of paper that he carries in his back pocket and intends to present to the Pope. As the story moves languidly toward a predictable resolution, Renato realizes that many of the people he knows and loves need a change of luck as much as he does.

Earnest work, written with obvious affection in its attempt to convey the charms and customs of Tuscany; but Shapiro’s tale of a town’s people and midlife angst remains not just small in scale but, unfortunately, also tepid.