more uncertain I became, transforming myself accordingly. I adopted so much of what he loved and hated and rejected and valued, became some version of myself that existed in relation to him.” Now liberated from this self-subordination, she is free to wander the streets indulgently, thinking about herself, her family, her memories, her time with Michael, and her impressions of Rome (heavy on the booze, fountains, churches, olives, espressos, and pizza). Planning a picnic in a park, she bumps into attractive American architect John and quickly finds distraction from her romantic past with a new romantic present. But John has a larger function than mere lover. He asks questions about Emilia’s father—a famous singer/songwriter who of course has influenced his daughter’s attitude toward men. This burrowing will lead Emilia to acknowledgements—“You never took me seriously, I never even had a chance” (addressed both to Michael and to her father)—and new possibilities. Giacco’s slender, elegant, yet detached story assumes engagements with privileged Emilia and her point of view, yet those connections may be less than certain in a tale that seems more glossy than groundbreaking.
Upscale escapism as beautiful people in a sensuous city bare and share.
DIARY OF A FILM
Govinden, Niven Deep Vellum (228 pp.) $25.95 | May 24, 2022 978-1-646051-80-9
Jangly nerves, obsessive ruminations, and a chance encounter lead a renowned film director toward unsettling developments and an unexpected epiphany. This taut, allusive, and illuminating novel explores creativity and receptivity—the processes through which we make art and experience it. The unnamed narrator is a throwback auteur, one of the last who still shoots on film and protects the integrity of his vision against marketplace pressures and outside influence. With affection and respect, he is called “maestro” by all, including his cast and his longtime production collaborators. The novel concerns his return to an Italian film festival with his highly anticipated adaptation of William Maxwell’s novel The Folded Leaf. Among those joining him are actors Lorien and Tom, whom he generally calls “the boys” and whose careers will likely receive huge boosts from the reception the film is expected to receive. Yet the director is all jitters, unsure of that reception and of what he will do next. He takes refuge in an espresso bar, where he encounters a woman who recognizes him and who proceeds to tell (and show) him a story that will pervade the novel and, he eventually comes to hope, become his next film. With psychological acuity, the novel shows the subtle changes in their relationship, in his relationship with his two main actors (who have fallen in love after their roles in his movie brought them together), and in his love for and dependence on his husband and their young son, who remain at home while he is at the festival but are very much present in his mind. The result is a novel about a film, about a filmmaker who has adapted a novel, and about a piece of visual art and the tragic story behind it that the filmmaker fixates upon as his next project. A slow fuse leads to a climactic flashpoint, putting all sorts of notions about life and art into fresh perspective.
SIERRA SIX
Greaney, Mark Berkley (528 pp.) $17.79 | Feb. 15, 2022 978-0-593-09899-8 In the 11th entry in the Gray Man series, Gentry unexpectedly faces an old foe. Courtland Gentry joins Golf Sierra, the counterterror team led by Zack Hightower. Gentry is the new Six, or point man. The last two Sixes were KIA—“It 26
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15 april 2022
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fiction
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kirkus.com
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