The Saint of Lost Things: A Novel [Hardcover]

This was a very genuine-feeling account of the Italian immigrant experience, and the city of Wilmington was vividly evoked. I would disagree with those who have said that Maddalena is not a likable character. True, she is not particularly "empowered" in the modern sense, and she has her flaws, but she is a product of her time and culture. I couldn't help sympathizing with her. So often literary heroines are exceptional or ahead of their time in some way, and while this is certainly interesting, it's rather refreshing to read about the interior life and feelings of a "normal" person -- and something which takes a bit more courage and empathy on the author's part, I think.

My only niggles with the book: some historical innacuracies, which stood out because most of the book seemed so well-researched. For example, pantyhose (mentioned when Maddalena goes to the talent agent) weren't invented until 1959, and Magic Markers (also mentioned in that scene) weren't around by that name, anyway, until the mid sixties.

I also wished that there was a bit more conflict and tension to the plot. While I finished and enjoyed the book, and found the writing clear and sensitive, the book as a whole was very quiet, and didn't have that wonderful page-turning quality I crave. Still, it's clear that the author has a lot of promise. I look forward to reading his future books.

"The Saint of Lost Things" Picks up the story of Maddalena Piccinelli Grasso, heroine of Castellani's first novel, "A Kiss from Maddalena" in America,her years-long adjustment to the new land and her gradual acceptance and growing love of Antonio who took her from Vito, the boy who loved her back in her Italian village. In letters from the beloved and much missed Old Country, Maddalena learns what happened to Vito after her hasty departure. Through a friendship with a middle-aged neighbor who is also mourning the past and his parents, Maddalena is able to express her grief over the village and family she left behind, and after the birth of her first child, which almost costs her her life, to move into a sort of resignation to her lot. It seems that although she comes to love Antonio, she never really stops missing the homeland she left against her will so many years before. I gave the novel 4 stars because although it was good to learn what happens to Maddalena, the love that grows in her for Antonio, who for me is really not a very admirable person, is beyond my comprehension as anything but a resigning of herself to the only person to whom she can cling in a sea of unfamiliar people and customs. Maddalena has to share her grief over the Old Country with Giulio, who is because of his own losses, emotionally available to talk to. Like so many husbands of that generation, Antonio hides so much of himself from his wife, and she accepts that.(In the end, though, Antonio, at least comes from the same village, and with Giulio at last finding a woman, he becomes lost to her as a friend and confidant). I don't really see this novel as a love story, but as the story of many women of that era who had no choices but to cling to husbands who did not understand them, whose world was circumscribed by husband and family, whose horizons were so limited. As she had no control over the choice of the man she married, so, in the end, she has no real choices but to learn to love him and to stifle any longings for more - education, travel (even back to the village to see her family. And, I am sorry to say, Maddalena does not fight very hard against the status quo. Even back then there were women who did in some way, even within the bounds of marriage and family, find some way to express themselves. Maddalena turns out not to be much of a heroine. In the end she is content to be a decoration on her husband's arm, and the mother of his children. I would say this is a fairly accurate portrayal of the lives of many wives (and not just immigrant wives) in the 1950's. Thank God for Women's Lib!!!

In 2003, author Christopher Castellani introduced readers to a young woman named Maddalena Piccinelli who lived in a small Italian village Santa Cecilia. We were also introduced to Vito Leone, the young man who loved her and hoped to be her husband, and we also met Antonio Grasso, a villager who moved to America as a child but returned to Santa Cecilia to find a wife. Readers cringed at the thought that Antonio would take her hand when she loved Vito and Vito loved her, but at a different time and age, the wishes of Maddalena's parents would be final and Vito and Maddalena as a couple would never be. Readers hated Antonio (or at least felt a strong dislike toward him), felt sorry for poor Vito, and wondered what would happen to Maddalena. In the fall of 2005, Castellani answered our questions in the sequel THE SAINT OF LOST THINGS.

All of the strengths of A KISS FROM MADDALENA can be found in THE SAINT OF LOST THINGS. The writing has a poetic quality to it. Castellani's word choices are precise and conjure up wonderful images. The attention to historical detail is impeccable. Just as the village of Santa Cecilia in World War II seemed believable to readers, so too does the 1950's Italian section of the city of Wilmington, Delaware, centered around the parish of St. Anthony. The dreams of the people, the closeness of the neighborhood, the racial tensions, the rivalry between immigrant groups, and the overall closeness of the neighborhood all seem accurate and create the setting in which the story takes place.

So what has happened to Maddalena? She's married to Antonio but is she happy? Does Vito come to rescue her? The book jacket's summary gives the reader a hint that after seven years of marriage, Maddalena has done her best to adjust to her new life. Readers of A KISS FROM MADDALENA know just how much she has sacrificed in her short lifetime, but even those who have not read the first book will be empathetic toward her as she misses her past but seems committed to make the best of her new life. Readers of A KISS may not have a soft spot for Antonio but in THE SAINT OF LOST THINGS will discover he's basically a good guy and a rather complex person. He wants what is best for his family, is a tireless worker, and puts his own dreams on hold believing the needs of his family always take precedence over his own. His flaws and faults may be many, but we grow to like him. A third character named Gullio Fabbri is introduced in THE SAINT OF LOST THINGS. He's a lonely bachelor who wants to begin a new life after his parents die, but he seems to lack the gumption and ambition necessary to do much more than change his name to Julian. The story itself revolves around the ups and downs of the three main characters, the joys and stress of the birth of a child, and beginning to take chances that life worthwhile.

Castellani could have taken his work in a number of directions, many of which would have been predictable and cliché. Instead he chooses to give us an authentic peak inside an Italian-American family, portraying the hopes and dreams in a realistic manner, and shows us that there's a compelling story in the people we may take for granted. My guess is that anyone who is familiar with the American immigrant experience will find their own family in this book, regardless of nationality. At the end of A KISS FROM MADDALENA readers wanted to know more. The book ended but the story didn't. In the same way THE SAINT OF LOST THINGS comes to an end, but the story does not, but there's nothing to worry about. The second in a trilogy so we'll just have to anxiously await the third installment to see what will happen to Maddalena and Antonio and their new family.

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