We've reviewed two Adriana Trigiani books at Trashionista. Lucia, Lucia, I absolutely loved. Queen of the Big Time, Diane didn't enjoy at all. I adored Trigiani's Big Stone Gap trilogy so could hardly wait to read Home to Big Stone Gap, but, sadly, I was terribly disappointed.
Ave Maria and Jack's daughter Etta has married young and settled in Italy. Jack's health is poor and Ave Maria thinks she's seen their son, who died aged 4, walking in the woods behind their house. Plus Ave Maria learns a secret about her best friend Iva Lou that causes a rift between them.
As I started reading Home to Big Stone Gap, I found it quite comforting to return to these much-loved characters, but as I read on... well, I was bored. I recently read and loved Michael Tolliver Lives - a sort of continuation of Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City series after a break of 20 years - so why didn't I enjoy Home to Big Stone Gap? Perhaps there hasn't been enough of a gap (ha!) since the end of the trilogy for me to be happy just to spend time with the characters. I wanted a story and I didn't really get one.
There were a number of plot lines, but none of them were fleshed out (and they were slight to begin with). We don't really get to the bottom of Ave Maria's disapproval of Etta's marriage. When Ave Maria thinks Jack is dying she finds a list he's written of things he still has to deal with - there is what appears to be a bombshell on this list and obviously I can't say what it is without spoiling things, but I found it a total cop-out. And manipulative, to boot.
The thing that really surprised me was the bad writing. Not all the way through, but there were a few sentences that involved one of my writing pet hates: exposition as dialogue:
"He wasn't four years old, like when he died, but older. Like twenty." I'd assume Ave's husband knows how old their son was when he died.
"... I'm named for my grandmother, who was a seamstress - and Grandma Mac was also a good one ..." says Etta to her mother, who, I'd guess, already knows who she was named for!
"... I was trained by the master. Shorty Johnson spent the better part of her life in the kitchen. What with her sons, Roy and Shep, hungry around the clock, she mastered the great Southern dishes, that's for sure." Who talks like that?!
But that's not all. The last few chapters are deathly dull and riddled with factual errors (I could go into more detail, but, again, I don't want to give anything away - although, if you're desperate to know, one of the reviews on Amazon'll help). And there's another massive error in the middle of the book that I can't believe got past the amount of people who've read this book before it got to print!
Honestly, I can't tell you how disappointed I was with this book. When Diane gave Queen of the Big Time 1/5 I was shocked. Diane said, "I think the reason I felt so strongly is I know she can do so much better...I flirted with a 2, but she made me mad!" Home to Big Stone Gap made me mad too. Since I couldn't even finish another of Trigiani's books, Rococo, I'm wondering if she no longer cares enough to do better.
Rating: 1/5
Like this? Well if you like this, you might like Queen of the Big Time! But read Lucia, Lucia, it's so much better.
