Amore

Library Journal11/01/2014
This is at once a lovely and troublesome book. At its heart, it's Friedland's (religious studies and sociology, Univ. of California, Santa Barbara; New York Univ.; The Fellowship) deeply felt memoir of time spent in Rome, talking to old men in the park, coffee shop proprietors, his beautiful landlady, the wise guy on the corner. The volume is also a touching look at love and struggle in the author's own family: his strong-willed and often at-odds parents, his deep love for his wife and their struggle with infertility, and his attempts to help his twin daughters make sense of the environment around them as they enter puberty. All of this is hypnotizing—Friedland has a real way with words, and he shows us the world through his eyes effortlessly.