FOLLOW YOUR HEART

This wan roman, whose hortatory pleading never rises beyond the level of ""Know Thyself,"" is an obvious entry in the Having Our Say/Bridges of Madison County sweepstakes. It comprises a serial letter of advice, written between one mid-November and Christmas, by Olga, an old Italian woman, for her fugitive granddaughter in America. In it, Olga describes her own thwarted intellectual hunger, unhappy marriage, gratifying adultery, and traumatic loss of her only daughter--all the while admonishing the daughter's daughter to be her own woman (which, essentially, she's already doing). The best that can be said for this sententious offertory of feminine wisdom is that it's smoothly written and translated and its bromides go down easily. Follow Your Heart won Italy's Premio Donna Citta di Roma in 1994. Che sar… sar….