Francesca's Kitchen
Peter Pezzelli, 2006
Kensington Publishing
340 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780758213273
Summary
No one writes about Italian-American families with the humor, warmth, and heart of Peter Pezzelli. Now, with Francesca’s Kitchen, he delivers another winning novel about how much we need the closeness of family—even if we don’t know it.
Where There’s Food, There’s Family.
For years, Francesca Campanile was the queen of her home. Standing in her Rhode Island kitchen, making sauce from sun-ripened tomatoes, dropping in basil from her garden, and adding fresh onion, Francesca dispensed advice as liberally as she did the garlic, arguing nonstop with her son and two daughters.
It was wonderful.
But now, her children and their children have moved away. And for the widowed Francesca, no longer having a family around to pester, annoy, guide, love, harangue and, of course, cook for, makes her feel useless. Who is she without them? What she needs is another family that needs her, and when she sees Loretta Simmons’s ad in the Providence paper for a part-time nanny, she’s sure she’s found it. All the single mom wants is someone to fill in for a few hours a day. But it’s obvious to Francesca that Loretta and her kids need more—a lot more. Loretta’s struggling to make ends meet. Every man she brings home is a disaster. And her kids could definitely use some guidance—and a little lasagna, frankly. In these frazzled, disconnected people, Francesca senses a hunger and loneliness as deep as her own. It’s time for Francesca to work her magic—if she can—and the best place to start is the kitchen...
Funny and moving, with a heroine to adore, Francesca’s Kitchen is a delicious story about sharing love, life, advice, and, above all, food. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—January 28, 1959
• Where—Providence, Rhode Island, USA
• Education—B.A., Wesleyan University
• Currently—lives in Narragansett, Rhode Island
Peter Pezzelli was born and raised in Rhode Island. A graduate of Wesleyan University, he lives with his wife, two children and their dog in Rhode Island where, most days, he is busy at work on his next novel. Every Sunday, however, if he’s not riding his bike, you’ll find him and his family at the dinner table, enjoying a plate of rabes and sausage, or a nice fritatta, or some other favorite Italian dish cooked up by his wife. (From the publisher and Wikipedia.)
Book Reviews
A warmhearted novel, perfect for an autumn evening in front of the fire.
Litchfield Enquirer
Pezzelli (Home to Italy) returns with another tale of an everyday Italian-American family, this one an empty nest. Mamma and all-around good egg Francesca Campanile, widowed with children and grandchildren all elsewhere, is floating aimlessly in her Providence, R.I., house. When she decides what she needs is to be needed, Francesca answers the babysitter-wanted ad of Loretta Simmons, a single mother working full-time. Pezzelli nicely renders Loretta's anxieties as she first rejects, and then, out of desperation, hires Francesca, who is not the student-type sitter she'd imagined. He's also lovely on Francesca's reminiscing about husband Leo and on the mutual sniffing-out processes as Francesca parses Loretta's harried home, and neglected children Penny and Will slowly learn to trust Francesca. Francesca's adult son Joey then unexpectedly returns to the nest. He meets Loretta, sparks fly, and suddenly Francesca isn't certain any of this was such a good idea. Most of the action happens in kitchens: home cooking, good pasta and traditional family values conquer all in this amusing and touching story.
Publishers Weekly
Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
Also consider these LitLovers talking points to help get a discussion started for Francesca's Kitchen:
1. How well is Francesca dealing with being an empty nester? How helpful are her friends...and what does her priest tell her? If she were your friend, what would you advise her? If you are "of an age" and also alone, can you relate to Francesca's circumstances?
2. How would you describe Francesca as a character? Do you know someone like her?
3. Why doesn't Francesca tell her children about her new job? What is she afraid of? If you were in her situation, would you do likewise? Or if your mother were in the same situation, how would you feel?
4. What does Francesca think about Loretta's household?
5. Is Loretta's situation typical of full-time working mothers or not? What are Loretta's anxieties regarding her life...and her initial anxieties regarding Francesca?
6. Talk about Penny and Will. Why do they initially distrust Francesca? How does Francesca first go about winning them over—and eventually changing the household for the better?
7. Consider the relationship between the two women, young and old. What eventually draws them together? What do they come to learn in the process of their budding relationship?
8. Do you enjoy the kitchen scenes and Francesca's approach to cooking? What about the recipes—have you tried them or do you intend to? How do they compare to your own recipes... or you own way of cooking?
9. Were you expecting the romance between Joey and Loretta to develop? When Joey returns why does Francesca begin to develop reservations about what she's doing?
10. In an age where the majority of women are in the workforce, and where the nuclear family has all but dissolved, what do you make of this story with it's emphasis on the traditional values regarding home and family? Do you find it out-dated...or a sort of "cautionary tale" about what is lacking in many modern households?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)
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