In her latest novel, after the memoir Sister Mother Husband Dog (etc.), Ephron takes two married couples and sets them off on a vacation in Italy. The settings are sublime and perfectly rendered: Rome and the ancient city of Siracusa. Finn is a restauranteur, an earthy, handsome man, married to the rigid Taylor, a sophisticate who is a cut above, and obsessed with their daughter, Snow, an ephemeral ten year old beauty who develops a schoolgirl crush on blocked writer Michael, married to Lizzie, a journalist whose career is on the wane.
The interactions of the couples is endlessly fascinating and unexpected, and reads so real (which is what great fiction does) that one feels that they are in the middle of the story, invisible but delighting at every word and action. The tension builds as Michael is faced with a not unusual dilemma but even here Ephron presents the situation with wit. This is literature that keeps the pages turning, the story of marriage and friendship, betrayal, love and avarice. Ephron's bringing together her beautifully developed characters and placing them out of their comfort zone, adding drama from the past mixed with drama of the present and never losing a sense of humor makes for a wonderful book.
