MESSAGE FROM ELENA

In this historical novel, a young man doesn’t realize how intertwined his life is with his boss’s until he makes a fateful promise to him.

Salvatore Martello secretly lusts after his boss’s wife after meeting her just once. But it’s 1959 Pittsburgh, and he’s a good Catholic guy–and good Catholic guys don’t do those kinds of things. That is until August and Elena Rocca ask Salvatore a favor he can’t refuse. It turns out that August and Salvatore’s father both loved the same woman–Salvatore’s mother–and the injuries August sustained in a fight with Salvatore’s father rendered him sterile. Shortly after, August accidentally bumped the Martellos’ car with his own on an icy wharf, sending the young Italian couple into a river, where they drowned. Now all Elena wants is a child, and the Roccas are hopeful that Salvatore can help them conceive. Any moral misgivings are relatively easily overcome, and Salvatore takes advantage of the opportunity. Meanwhile, simmering ethnic rivalries explode into violence, leaving August injured again, as Elena and Salvatore decide whether or not to continue their efforts to get her pregnant. Salvatore turns to a powerful uncle to help with retribution on August’s behalf, forcing Salvatore to reconsider how he views his own family as well as the Roccas. Though it’s an intriguing plot, exploring family, love and faith, Cristina’s novel never takes off and the pat ending ties things up too neatly, with none of the dramatic setups paying off. August and Salvatore’s intertwined stories are revealed piecemeal and never as smoothly as they could be, and, when coupled with Salvatore’s reminiscenses, they take the reader out of the story completely. Though it’s satisfactorily written, the book is talky at times and Salvatore’s passivity is frustrating–most of the action is his response to events, not him effecting change.

An intriguing premise that starts strong, only to be watered down by weak characters and a lack of intensity.