Linda Cardillo, Dancing on Sunday Afternoons

Dancing on Sunday Afternoons

Linda Cardillo

Harlequin Everlasting, Feb 2007, $5.25

ISBN: 0373654030

Guilia D'Orazio thinks back over her life, especially her two husbands. The presence of her second spouse Salvatore who died over three decades ago is everywhere in her home and her garden, her first husband Paolo left nothing, not even a photo. Whereas Salvatore, even when he was dying, took simple pleasure with his offspring and his first granddaughter Cara Serrafini, Paolo had no children. Though she loved the warm comforting Salvatore, Guilia thinks of Paolo while lying in her bed that she shared with her second husband.

When the family matriarch breaks her hip, her married granddaughter Cara, a Manhattan-based caterer, who speaks fluent Italian, comes from America to Italy to help her paternal nana heal though that means leaving her husband and kids behind in Jersey. In Avellino, Italy, Guilia shares with Cara the only legacy that Paolo left her, a cigar box filled with letters of love and troubles that remind the younger member of her own life for Nana remembers how her beloved Paolo took her DANCING ON SUNDAY AFTERNOONS in New York that for the enchanting moment washed away their woes.

This is a warm family drama whose prime characters (Nana and her granddaughter) and the support cast as seen through the eyes of the lead females make for a delightful poignant tale. The storyline focuses on the letters, which gives it a sense of historical perspective, but also remains anchored in the present as Cara cares for her beloved nana while parallelling her relationship to that of her grandmother. Readers will enjoy Linda Cardillo's fine novel of how love can come in so many different ways.

Harriet Klausner