Book Review: One Summer Day in Rome
/One Summer Day in Rome
by Mark LamprellFlatiron Books, 2017The briefest exposure to the day's news headlines is enough; there's scarcely an additional need to reach for the nearest novel that seems carefree, that promises whimsy with a touch of romance, and that breathes the worry-free airs of summer. And if the book in question has “summer” in the title, so much the better.No shortage of such books, of course, regardless of the season, but Mark Lamprell's new novel One Summer Day in Rome is just about as confident and winning an example of the type as readers are likely to encounter in bookshops before Labor Day shuts down the carnival for another year.Lamprell uses a practiced hand to braid three initially unconnected story-arcs into a plot that's as light as a glass of lemonade. Young Alice, an artist-manque with a benignly domineering father, comes to Rome to try a bit of half-hearted personal re-invention. Connie and her sister-in-law Lizzie, older women and best friends, come to Rome to scatter the ashes of Connie's husband in the Tiber (although Connie has something a private agenda). And Meg and Alec, a well-off young LA power couple, come to Rome on the kind of hair-brained quest the City is known to inspire: they're looking for a tile in a particular vivid shade of blue, putting all their hopes on this upscale Holy Grail to re-spark their stalled romance. All these characters encounter the standard cast of colorful locals without which this kind of novel might as well be set in Scranton, and to this admittedly programmatic mix Lamprell has added the novel's dash of inspiration: the whole of the contrived business is narrated by Rome itself, watching these and many thousands of other too-brief mortals living their lives amidst the famous buildings and monuments:
Listen carefully and you will hear her columns humming like harp strings, plucked by those who have been enchanted before you, among them Caesars, popes, despots, dreamers, scientists, artists, and lovers. Look carefully, beyond the masterpieces and marvels, and you will see that there is not a single mundane sight to be witnessed. Here, even the gutters are beautiful.This is the place where passions are aroused, senses inflamed, and lovers fall into each other's arms. It all appears to unfold like magic, but I will tell you what really happens.How do I know?I have been here since the beginning …I am here now and will be here long after you leave.
A good solid Baedeker's worth of those buildings and monuments get enthusiastic name-checks in the course of One Summer Day in Rome, and that course itself never flags, never detours into deeper waters. Lamprell takes some minor risks – the character of Meg is instantly and consistently dislikable, and all those colorful locals verge into caricature territory – and he delivers some lovely little moments of city-description (“Outside, the sky had intensified to a deep brilliant blue, electrified by the setting sun. Having absorbed the heat of the day, the stones of Rome were now radiating it back in eddies”), plus the character if stalwart Lizzie, whose stoical final farewell to her brother's ashes will put a lump in the throat of even the toughest reader.And Lamprell doesn't disappoint in the most crucial responsibility of any book like One Summer Day in Rome: the ending. He orchestrates it hammily and obviously, down to the last little detail, and it all works like a precision instrument. The book is best read in exactly the season and setting mentioned in the title – but as a respite from CNN (not to mention the winter drawing stealthily nearer), One Summer Day on the Back Porch will do just fine.