LEFT-HANDED DREAMS

The protagonist and narrator of this unfortunately tepid meditative novel is Martina Satriano, an Italian-American academic whose return journey to Rome (after many years away) for her mother’s funeral occasions a series of dreamlike reminiscences of her years in both countries, former loves and occupations (in Italy, she had worked as a chef to support her family), and musings about the unlived lives she might have had. Progressing from needlessly intense self-analysis to a state of naturalezza (roughly, accepting things as they are—such as being born left-handed), she comes to terms with her unregenerate human vacillations between “reality” and “dream.” All this is considerably less appetizing than the recipes that Duranti (see below) appends to the text. You may find yourself yawning in the company of Martina Satriano, but you’ll want to hear more about Lobster Amoricaine.