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HALL
WAYS REVIEW: AUDIO BOOK / PRINT COMBO REVIEW. Warning!
This book is going to take way longer to read with your ears than indicated.
And that’s NOT a problem since what slowed me down was stopping, re-playing,
and writing down the numerous quotes that caught my ear. The Way of Beauty is a
treasure chest full of memorable lines uttered by characters with whom we want
to spend time and know better. Listening to the story unfold makes the reader disappear
into the past and into the hearts of the generations of people who live there.
In her first book, The Memory of Us, author
Camille Di Maio convinced me that I am, in fact, capable of enjoying reading a romance.
Happily, The Way of Beauty seals
the deal, but like TMOU, it sets
the bar high for all other books to follow.
Camille’s books are gloriously literary, and the reader is swept into the
passion and love the characters develop for each other. But the romance element
is so much more than between people. Di Maio manages to evoke an air of romance
with the setting and the times and the history. Readers fall in love with every
piece of it, generation after generation.
“It was
the one good thing about having little. There was little to lose.”
While there is passion abounding, Di
Maio also brings in the less than beautiful truths of the early 20th
century. She has done considerable research that highlights the ugliness associated
with immigration, workplace safety, extreme poverty, women’s rights, prejudice,
sexual harassment, and war – and the government's lack of interest or ability to
handle the issues. (Hmm. And we are still dealing with new iterations of these
same issues today.) Without being preachy or feeling like a history lesson, the
book informs, subtly, and makes the reader think. The historical details are seamlessly
woven into the rich tapestry that is The Way of Beauty.
“What
was the value of a life of a man when thousands of immigrants were desperate to
take his place?”
There is a stark contrast between the privileged
and the poor, but glamour is often presented in terms of the sacrifice it took to
make that glamour happen. Again, Di Maio makes the reader think about the conveniences
we take for granted and, literally, the lives forever altered or lost to provide
them to us.
The Way
of Beauty is clean (tasteful and classy), and cleanly
edited, and the writing is lyrical and even dreamy at times. Dialogues are
natural and work to further immerse the reader in the setting. Written in two parts, the
story flows smoothly from that of Vera to that of Alice, Vera’s daughter. There
is a prologue with one sentence that demands explanation that will begin
niggling at the reader as Alice’s story progresses in part two. Audio book
listeners miss out on this, but for those who read the book with their eyes, don’t
skip the informative Author’s Note for even more tidbits to enrich the story.
(And the Acknowledgments. Thank YOU, Camille, for sharing your beautiful
stories with us. I am honored.) My only complaint is that I wanted more of everything!
The story spans many years, and I hated missing out on any of the delicious
details that surely must have happened in the in-betweens. I think a novella
just about Vera and Angelo is in order!
The narration, performed by Meredith Starkman,
is well-done. I listened at 1.25x speed, which was perfect for me and didn’t
alter the vibe of the story. Starkman’s voicing of male characters is especially
good, and she handles both the Italian and German accents and pronunciations
admirably. Vera and Pearl are perfection. In part two, Alice sounds a bit too
modern-teenish rather than how I would imagine a teen in the ‘40s should sound. And
Emmett seems creepy instead of mysterious, and I’m not sure he reads that way.
Overall, Starkman does a great job of keeping the pace even and there are no glitches
or mispronounced words that I noticed. The
style and pace of The Way
of Beauty translate very well as an audio book.
Thank you to Lone Star Book Blog Tours
and the author for providing me the audio book and the eBook in exchange for my
honest opinion – the only kind I give.
MORE LINES THAT CAUGHT MY EAR:
“She
might never be able to see the world, but all the world came to her through the
tunnels of Penn Station.”
“Why do
people change their voices when speaking to someone in sorrow? As if death were
played on the left side of the piano while life was played on the right.”
“Being
a strong woman didn't mean she couldn't accept assistance, especially when she
really did need it.”
“Our
wrinkles tell our story, etched out like a road map. That’s the way of beauty.
Birth, middle age, decline.”
