It was a delightful mix of romance, friendship, food, and family stresses and conflicts, and with some "Moonstruck" references thrown in, how could you really go wrong? The New York and Brooklyn settings were totally familiar to me as a long-time New Yorker, and the abundance of familiar details of those made me smile.
Thirty-something heroine Iris is an English transplant to the city, who has fled an abusive relationship back in London, and is also still coming to terms with the death from cancer of her beloved mother, a former rock singer, who raised her as a single parent. Gio, her hero counterpart, is a widower with a teenaged daughter, and is a part of a close Italian American family, the Belottis. His father, also a musician, left for the road, leaving the young Gio in the care of his brother and sister-in-law. He grew up with their daughters, as the "son" of the family. The Belottis run a successful gelateria in Little Italy, which has been in the family for generations, and live in a spacious brownstone in Brooklyn. Their claim to fame is their signature vanilla gelato, the secret recipe for which is passed down exclusively through the family (or so they think).
Iris is a trained chef, but for the time being, she is working at a trendy noodle restaurant on the equally trendy Lower East Side. Her boss and friend, Bobby, lives with his husband in an apartment over the restaurant, and Iris lives on the top floor. They share a quirky cat, Smirnoff.
Iris and Gio meet but get off on the wrong foot when they both reach for the last copy of a book in a local store.
When Iris and Bobby stroll through Little Italy during the Feast of San Gennaro (not specifically named in the book, but we New Yorkers know), they come across a shut gelato shop. Iris instantly recognizes that this is the shop whose owner gave her mother the secret recipe on a napkin. All her life, Iris's mother prepared the gelato for the two of them, and Iris has zealously guarded the recipe, and what remains of the napkin...
How the story unfolds is the charm of this book, so I will leave it there. Read and enjoy, and decide who you'd like to play Iris and Gio in the movie. Emily Blunt is my choice for Iris, and for Gio, perhaps Oscar Isaac, but I'm open to suggestions!
Thirty-something heroine Iris is an English transplant to the city, who has fled an abusive relationship back in London, and is also still coming to terms with the death from cancer of her beloved mother, a former rock singer, who raised her as a single parent. Gio, her hero counterpart, is a widower with a teenaged daughter, and is a part of a close Italian American family, the Belottis. His father, also a musician, left for the road, leaving the young Gio in the care of his brother and sister-in-law. He grew up with their daughters, as the "son" of the family. The Belottis run a successful gelateria in Little Italy, which has been in the family for generations, and live in a spacious brownstone in Brooklyn. Their claim to fame is their signature vanilla gelato, the secret recipe for which is passed down exclusively through the family (or so they think).
Iris is a trained chef, but for the time being, she is working at a trendy noodle restaurant on the equally trendy Lower East Side. Her boss and friend, Bobby, lives with his husband in an apartment over the restaurant, and Iris lives on the top floor. They share a quirky cat, Smirnoff.
Iris and Gio meet but get off on the wrong foot when they both reach for the last copy of a book in a local store.
When Iris and Bobby stroll through Little Italy during the Feast of San Gennaro (not specifically named in the book, but we New Yorkers know), they come across a shut gelato shop. Iris instantly recognizes that this is the shop whose owner gave her mother the secret recipe on a napkin. All her life, Iris's mother prepared the gelato for the two of them, and Iris has zealously guarded the recipe, and what remains of the napkin...
How the story unfolds is the charm of this book, so I will leave it there. Read and enjoy, and decide who you'd like to play Iris and Gio in the movie. Emily Blunt is my choice for Iris, and for Gio, perhaps Oscar Isaac, but I'm open to suggestions!
No comments:
Post a Comment