Adriana Trigiani returns with her signature blend of warmth, wit, and Italian-American heart in The View From Lake Como, a story that feels both deeply personal and universally resonant. This latest offering from the beloved New York Times bestselling author takes readers on an emotional voyage from the blue-collar shores of Lake Como, New Jersey, to the marble-capped mountains of Carrara, Italy, crafting a narrative that sparkles with authenticity even as it grapples with life’s messier truths.
When Life Crumbles Like Old Marble
The novel centers on Jess Capodimonte Baratta, a thirty-three-year-old draftsman whose life has cracked like poorly quarried stone. Recently divorced from Bobby Bilancia, “the perfect husband” (a designation that speaks volumes about small-town expectations), Jess finds herself in the ultimate position of Italian-American family shame: living in her parents’ basement, licking her wounds while dutifully playing the role of family caregiver.
Trigiani’s portrayal of Jess’s initial state is both heartbreaking and painfully relatable. The author captures the suffocating nature of expectations with surgical precision, showing how Jess has become the “overlooked daughter” who cooks Sunday dinner, tends to aging parents, and consistently places herself last in line for life’s offerings. Yet beneath this familiar setup lies something more complex—a woman whose artistic talents have been channeled into the family marble business under the guidance of her dapper Uncle Louie, who believes she can accomplish anything “once she invests in a better wardrobe.”
The Architecture of Family Secrets
The novel’s foundation shifts dramatically when family tragedy unearths long-buried secrets that force Jess to question everything she thought she knew about loyalty and trust. Trigiani handles these revelations with particular skill, allowing them to emerge organically rather than dropping them like narrative bombshells. The discovery of Uncle Louie’s offshore business dealings and the FBI’s subsequent investigation creates a compelling subplot that adds layers of complexity to what could have been a straightforward story of self-discovery.
Uncle Louie emerges as one of Trigiani’s most fascinating characters—a man whose love for his niece is genuine, but whose business practices exist in a moral gray area that reflects the complicated relationship many Italian-American families have with rules, loyalty, and survival. His revelation about the “Elegant Gangster,” a shadow company used to resell marble remnants, creates both legal jeopardy for Jess and a deeper understanding of how family legacies can bind us in unexpected ways.
Italy as Emotional Geography
When circumstances propel Jess to her ancestral home in Carrara, Trigiani’s prose comes alive with sensory details that make Italy feel like a character in its own right. The author’s deep connection to Italian culture—reinforced by her receipt of the Cavaliere dell’Ordine della Stella d’Italia from President Sergio Mattarella—infuses every description with authenticity. From the marble quarries where Michelangelo sourced his David to the narrow streets of Milan, Trigiani creates a landscape that serves as both backdrop and catalyst for Jess’s transformation.
The relationship between Jess and Angelo Strazza, the passionate gilder who works in gold, develops with the kind of organic chemistry that feels earned rather than manufactured. Angelo represents possibility—not just romantic, but creative and spiritual. His mother’s panic attacks, which Jess helps manage using techniques learned from her own struggles with anxiety, create moments of genuine human connection that anchor the novel’s more romantic flights.
The Weight of Authenticity
Trigiani’s greatest strength lies in her ability to capture the rhythms and textures of Italian-American family life without resorting to caricature. The Sunday dinners, the Sodality of Saint Rose, the way grief manifests through casseroles and rosary beads—all feel lived-in rather than observed from the outside. Her dialogue crackles with the particular cadences of New Jersey Italian families, where love and judgment arrive in equal measure, often within the same sentence.
However, this authenticity occasionally works against the novel’s momentum. Some scenes, particularly those involving extended family gatherings, feel overpopulated with characters whose primary function seems to be providing local color rather than advancing the story. The revelation about Mauro LaFortezza’s connection to Uncle Louie, while emotionally satisfying, stretches credibility in ways that the more grounded elements of the story do not.
Craft and Character Development
Trigiani’s technical skill as a writer shines in her handling of Jess’s emotional arc. The character’s growth feels gradual and hard-won, marked by small victories and realistic setbacks. Her sessions with Dr. Rex (which she calls “Thera-Me”) provide insight into her psychological state without feeling like exposition dumps. The recurring motif of “Bobby Bilancia Breathe”—a meditation technique that helps Jess process her anxiety—becomes both a practical tool and a symbol of her evolving relationship with her past.
The novel’s structure, divided into three sections titled “Cry It Away,” “Sing It Away,” and “Love It Away,” reflects the emotional journey while honoring the Italian philosophy quoted in the epigraph. This framework gives the narrative shape without feeling forced, allowing Trigiani to explore different aspects of grief, creativity, and renewal.
Where the Foundation Shows Cracks
While The View From Lake Como succeeds in many areas, it occasionally struggles under the weight of its own ambitions. The FBI subplot, while providing necessary conflict, sometimes feels disconnected from the more intimate story of personal growth. The resolution of Uncle Louie’s legal troubles arrives perhaps too neatly, wrapped up in ways that serve the plot more than emotional truth.
Additionally, some supporting characters exist more as representatives of particular viewpoints than as fully realized individuals. Bobby Bilancia, despite being crucial to Jess’s past, never quite emerges from the shadow of “perfect husband” expectations to become a complex person in his own right. His journey to Italy to reconnect with Jess feels motivated more by plot necessity than character development.
The Lasting View
Despite these concerns, The View From Lake Como succeeds as both entertainment and emotional exploration. Trigiani has created a story that honors the complexity of family bonds while celebrating the courage required to forge one’s own path. The novel’s treatment of creativity—particularly through Jess’s work as a draftsman and her growing appreciation for stone carving—adds depth to what could have been a simple romance.
The ending, with Jess establishing herself in both Italy and New Jersey, suggests that home isn’t about choosing between old and new worlds but finding ways to honor both. It’s a mature resolution that avoids the either-or thinking that often plagues stories about reinvention.
Recommended Reading for Those Who Loved This Book
Readers who enjoyed The View From Lake Como will likely appreciate Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love for its themes of self-discovery through travel, though Trigiani’s work offers more complex family dynamics. Frances Mayes’s Under the Tuscan Sun provides similar Italian immersion with a focus on place as transformation. For those drawn to the Italian-American family elements, consider Lisa Scottoline’s Someone Knows or Helena Attlee’s The Land Where Lemons Grow for deeper cultural exploration.
Trigiani’s own earlier works, particularly The Shoemaker’s Wife and the Big Stone Gap series, offer similar themes of Italian heritage and female empowerment. Readers seeking contemporary women’s fiction with cultural depth might also enjoy Jennifer Ryan’s The Chilbury Ladies’ Choir or Kristin Hannah’s The Four Winds.
Final Assessment
The View From Lake Como stands as a worthy addition to Trigiani’s impressive catalog, offering readers a story that satisfies on multiple levels while providing genuine insight into the immigrant experience and the ongoing negotiation between tradition and independence. While it may not break new ground in terms of plot or structure, it succeeds through the author’s clear affection for her characters and her deep understanding of the cultural forces that shape them.
The novel works best when it trusts its quieter moments—Jess learning to carve stone, the development of her relationship with Angelo, the gradual healing of family wounds. These scenes demonstrate Trigiani’s particular gift for finding extraordinary meaning in ordinary moments, a skill that has made her one of the most reliable voices in contemporary women’s fiction.
The View From Lake Como ultimately argues that sometimes the most beautiful views come after the hardest climbs, and that the stone we think will crush us might actually be the raw material for building something entirely new. In a world that often demands we choose between loyalty and authenticity, Trigiani suggests there might be a third way—one that honors the past while refusing to be imprisoned by it.