Reviewer: Amy Lignor
Title: The Blind Contessa's New Machine
Author: Carey Wallace
Publisher: Pamela Dorman Books
ISBN-13: 978-0-6700-2189-5
Release Date: July 2010
Genre/Sub-genre: Historical Fiction
Year/Setting: 16th Century Italy
Overall Rating: 4.5
Sexual Content Rating: None/Subtle
Language (Profanity/Slang) Content Rating: None/Mild
Violent Content Rating: None/Negligible
Carey's Website/Blog: www.careywallace.com
Dear Readers:
I never use the word pretty. Not because I think it’s a silly word; in fact, I don’t. I think it’s one of those very few words that can’t be used often, because nothing in life is pretty. Pretty is profound, it’s a word that means so much more than people think it does. Pretty encompasses something that was SO lovely it will stay in your mind for a long, long time to come. You don’t notice the intensity of it because it’s soft, quiet, peaceful, and full of hope. This, readers, is the prettiest story I think I’ve ever read.
This debut novel is a small, slim book that packs a whole lot of punch. Our main character is a young girl by the name of Carolina Fantoni. Carolina is a girl with a great many emotions and likes to spend most of her time alone. At the beginning of our story, Carolina – and the world around her – is planning for her marriage to a handsome and popular young man named Pietro. Pietro is well-bred, wealthy, and, unfortunately, someone who really doesn’t listen to Carolina. In most ways, it seems as if he finds her to be just the "pretty" ornament that will be on his arm for the rest of his days.
Carolina is trying her best to tell the people she loves that she is losing her sight. Her loving mother’s reply to this shocking statement of fact is a pat on the hand and the words, "I have been in love, too." Her dear, sweet father’s response? A pat on the hand, a smile, and a humorous: "Ah! But you haven’t yet!" Even her fiancé doesn’t believe her. So where Carolina mostly finds herself is walking the banks of the small lake that her father had "created" for her mother when they’d fallen in love. Carolina is really the only person who likes the lake, and her father built her a small one-room cottage to sit in while she whiled away her time there. In fact, when she was just a child, she would spend her days and nights there, contemplating life and all its mysteries.
The only person that joins her there is her neighbor and friend, Turri. She met Turri when she was only seven and he was seventeen at a party, and he’d been very kind to her. He’s truly a master of inventions; almost every time Carolina "ran" into him he’d been testing out some new machine or idea that’d come to him. She’d watched him get married to a woman he truly didn’t love and have a son (perhaps his/perhaps not), named Antonio. And even though her parents and everyone around her wanted Carolina to be happily married to Pietro, Turri was completely and utterly comfortable and understood her more than anyone else in the world.
She did do as all well-bred, well-raised Italian Contessa’s would and married the man she was set to marry, but soon her eyesight begins to fade more and more and she delves into an imaginary world that she creates inside her dreams. The one person who does continue to love and completely understand her is Turri – who takes the time to create a special "writing machine" that allows them to continue to communicate with each other on all levels.
The purity, kindness, love, romance, friendship – everything that this author offers – is wrapped up in the prettiest package I’ve ever read. The characters are, at once, complex and innocent, and the conversations and feelings between Turri and Carolina make this one of the best romances and most memorable stories I’ve ever read. I know this is a debut novel but I sure hope that another book is on its way from this wonderful new author. I look forward to it.
Until next time,
Amy
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