The Uncle from Rome

by Joseph Caldwell

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0670840580
• ISBN13: 9780670840588
• Release Date: January 1992
• Publisher: Viking
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.0" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Life imitates opera

The Uncle From Rome is one of those rare books that manages to combine cultural melodrama, personal angst, hilarious comedy, and good cooking - all at once - in a veritable soup of personal and cultural contradictions. Caldwell himself states his case for the incoherence of the human soul when Michael describes the typical Neapolitan as profoundly contradictory - cruel and kind, vain and humble, warm and cold. But Caldwell captures these contradictions of the human spirit neatly, accurately and with scathing humor. Our hero, Michael, is an ambitious opera tenor who is doomed to play bit parts. Ostensibly, he is in Naples for a performance of Tosca. But, in reality, he has come to Italy so that he can finally be a star in his own production of an obscure Benjamin Britten opera. But the true proof of his under-appreciated talent comes when he is ordered by Tosca's diva to impersonate a fictitious "Uncle from Rome" in order to lend an air of prestige to a wedding. Michael manages to pull his "bit part" off perfectly, but with entirely too much success. In his role as the "Lo Zio da Roma" Michael must prevent a murder - which he does with simultaneously hilarious and tragic consequences. When all the contradictions come together, and everything inevitably falls apart, Michael himself comes unstrung in a tense climax that will have you glued to the pages. The last paragraph is literally to die for. Caldwell skewers the fantastic and ridiculous world of Neapolitan pride/opera/family (exaggerated, yet somehow perfectly true)with a wit that is so sharp it's painful. The contrast between Italian high melodrama with Michael's own state of desperate, but equally self-dramatized ennui, is truly marvelous. Caldwell is a true connoisseur of the arts, of artists, and of everything that makes "Nabladans" and, well, people in general, simultaneously wonderful and unbearable. Bravo, Giuseppe. Bravissimo!

Life imitates opera

The Uncle From Rome is one of those rare books that manages to combine cultural melodrama, personal angst, hilarious comedy, and good cooking - all at once - in a veritable soup of personal and cultural contradictions. Caldwell himself states his case for the incoherence of the human soul when Michael describes the typical Neopolitan as profoundly contradictory - cruel and kind, vain and humble, warm and cold. But Caldwell captures these contradictions of the human spirit neatly, accurately and with scathing humor. Our hero, Michael, is an ambitious opera tenor who is doomed to play bit parts. Ostensibly, he is in Naples for a performance of Tosca. But, in reality, he has come to Italy so that he can finally be a star in his own production of an obscure Benjamin Britten opera. But the true proof of his under-appreciated talent comes when he is ordered by Tosca's diva to impersonate a fictitious "Uncle from Rome" in order to lend an air of prestige to a wedding. Michael manages to pull his "bit part" off perfectly, but with entirely too much success. In his role as the "Lo Zio da Roma" Michael must prevent a murder - which he does with simultaneously hilarious and tragic consequences. When all the contradictions come together, and everything inevitably falls apart, Michael himself comes unstrung in a tense climax that will have you glued to the pages. The last paragraph is literally to die for. Caldwell skewers the fantastic and ridiculous world of Neopolitan pride/opera/family (exaggerated, yet somehow perfectly true)with a wit that is so sharp it's painful. The contrast between Italian high melodrama with Michael's own state of desperate, but equally self-dramatized ennui, is truly marvelous. Caldwell is a true connoisseur of the arts, of artists, and of everything that makes "Nabladans" and, well, people in general, simultaneously wonderful and unbearable. Bravo, Giuseppe. Bravissimo!

The Tragedy at the Opera

I enjoyed this book. Not an opera fan myself, it used the opera culture as a backdrop for an interesting tightly knit plot. The detail used to describe Naples transported me. The twists in the book, the double-life of Michael Ruane as a supporting opera actor and his assumed identity of Don Michel, the uncle from Rome, interweave to create an fascinating tapestry. All of the supporting characters are well drawn. Cross-dresser Piero with his wry smiles and penchant for betrayal was my favorite. The Italian flare for emotion was beautifully illustrated in the Gaetano and Peppino, the two brothers fighting over the multi-layered Rosalia. If there were any weakness in the book, for me it was in Michael's character. He never seemed to know who he was, a man adrift in search of true emotion. While this may be the point, it kept me distanced from him. The only other thread that didn't quite gel for me was the result of the Curlew River Opera. Not knowing whether it was a success or not seemed to mute one of the major subplots. However, that is a minor objection to the volatile love triangle that is played out with Michael as the uncle, and the reversals that come fast and furious as the book climaxes in operatic fashion at the end. Read and enjoy!

Naples! Pasta! Opera!

I had the opposite reaction to this book: for me it jelled to perfection! The Kirkus reviewer obviously doesn't know any divas or any Italians. I found the book a joy to read -- very funny, colorful, and filled with well-wrought sentences that begged a second perusal. Caldwell kept me right with him through all the outrageous twists and turns of the plot, like a tour of the Neopolitan back passages. If anything, I felt that the section focusing on Michael's ex-lover was the weakest in the book, not the strongest. Maybe you have to be a singer yourself to fully appreciate the tenor's angst and the life-as-aria theme to the book, but I found it delicious fun to read, moving, and memorable.