Olivia : Or The Weight of the Past [Unknown Binding]

Product Details

• Unknown Binding
• Publisher: New York, NY, U.S.A.: Crown Publishing Group (1994)
• ASIN: B002V3RS4U
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars ROSSNER COOKS UP ANOTHER TELLING PLOT, April 8, 2004

By 

Gail Cooke (TX, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Olivia (Mass Market Paperback)

Judith Rossner surely caught our eyes with "Looking For Mr. Goodbar," an on target encapsulation of the singles scene. With this title she hones in on troubled family relationships as she relates the story of a celebrated cook and her estranged daughter.

Caroline, the narrator, has grown up in New York City, neglected by career driven parents. Seeking affection Caroline stakes claims on the family cooks. When the last of them, Anna, returns to a family restaurant in Italy, Caroline scrambles after her.

After marrying the father of her child, the insensitive womanizing Angelo, Caroline takes over the running of the restaurant's kitchen, and is soon repeating her mother's mistakes. When Olivia, her daughter is 12, Caroline returns to New York City without her.

The gist of Rossner's story begins when a sutbborn and antagonistic Olivia follows her mother to America. Mix the mother daughter relationship with the doctor who lives in the apartment above Caroline, and Caroline's mother who is now a wonderful grandmother, then stir in all of these women seeking their place in the world.

Rossner's description of food, and culinary how-to are as satisfying as the novel's ending.

- Gail Cooke

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is a great book!, September 14, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Olivia or The Weight of the Past (Hardcover)

If you liked Marilyn French's Her Mother's Daughter you'll love this book. Judith Rossner does a wonderful job developing her characters. You'll feel like you really know all of them when you're done reading the book. I really can't recommend this book highly enough!

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good recepie -Food, Italy, Single Mum and New York, July 17, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Olivia or The Weight of the Past (Hardcover)

I read this on a recent holiday - ideal for reading on the beach and dreaming of a woman who could cook you gourmet italian meals every day of your life! Do such people really exist or is this why the genre is fiction. I learnt a lot about food and New York style neurosis. Got a bit slow towards the end but overall a good light read