Amanda Prantera

Don Giovanna (2000) immediately preceded Capri File, which was my introduction to Amanda Prantera four years (and ten posts) ago. It shares with that book, indeed with most of Prantera's later work, a featherlight touch of gossipy first person narrative and innovative - gimmicky? - format. This time, to echo the central motif of Mozart's opera Don Giovanni, the narrative is told by several characters in turn, 'singing' their account of events in 'arias' ... which sounds pretty hard to take but turns out witty and well thought out. So we have Serenade to a Mobile Phone (for one character leaving a message to another), Aria Over a Basket of Chickpeas (when the domestic help takes her turn on the stage/page), Intermezzo on a Postcard, Lament on a Laptop (email) etc.

It's all good fun and imparts with zip and pizazz the story of two couples in the Umbrian countryside involved in a production of Don Giovanni. Lord Henry Thirsk is in danger of abandoning his wife Gaia in favour of the costume designer, Joanna (the eponymous Don Giovanna), who is herself being cuckolded by her husband Orso, with any number of supine slappers. The plot, as adultery tales go, is not quite like most, though to say more would spoil it - though some might argue that Prantera herself does that. All in all the whole has a delicacy that makes it almost translucent, and once read, it seems more like a memory of some pleasantly remembered Radio 4 drama, floating through the airwaves, than a solid, bound, black and white book.

Letter to Lorenzo (1999), unlike Prantera's other recent works, from Don Giovanna through Capri File to Spoiler, doesn't have a fancy-pants (read: gimmicky) structure, in the form of emails or multiple voices or anything else. It's a straightforward chapter-by-chapter first person narrative, and highly satisfying and enjoyable.

Juliet is the wife - er, widow - of the eponymous Lorenzo, a firebrand leftie in Italy who is now derided as a terrorist after the van he was driving exploded with a bomb on his lap. Juliet knows that the left don't do terrorism and that the explosion was a Fascist plot to discredit the Communists by painting them with their own bloody brush. However, her task is not only to persuade the authorities of this, but to stop them from believing she too was implicated in Lorenzo's 'crime.'

As thrillers go, it could move a little more thrillingly, but there's plenty of plot and a couple of switchbacks along the way, together with much romantic and idealistic introspection, together with Prantera's idiosyncratic voice, which gives it the official Literary label too. What disconcerted me most was discovering halfway through the book, through a sudden reference to Watergate, that the book is actually set in the 1970s and not contemporaneously. Of course later events justify this, so no harm done, and Letter to Lorenzo is probably a better starting point with Prantera than most of the others I've commented on so far. Now don't all rush at once.

Amanda Prantera's publishers, Bloomsbury, have kindly put a link to this thread on her author page on their website. So if you've found Palimpsest by coming from there, please feel free to register and share your thoughts on her books. At least this might convince me that somebody else out there is actually reading her stuff...

Originally Posted by John Self

Amanda Prantera's publishers, Bloomsbury, have kindly put a link to this thread on her author page on their website. So if you've found Palimpsest by coming from there, please feel free to register and share your thoughts on her books. At least this might convince me that somebody else out there is actually reading her stuff...

I almost picked one up at the weekend. The shop only had the one about monks - sorry, can't recall its title - but I left it for now. I do intend on trying her books, based on your reviews, but right now I don't think I'm up for it. I note that Bloomsbury seem to have llinked to a few author threads but, thus far, not the William Boyd thread - you might want to rectify that.

Spoiler. Yes, it's been on the table in my local Waterstone's too recently. Presumably they think there might be a Da Vinci Code effect there. I believe also that Waterstone's recently asked Bloomsbury if they wanted to do a 3-for-2 on Prantera's backlist but they weren't interested. Of course as it would have involved them shelling out money for the privilege, perhaps that explains it.

For Blixa or anyone else, to avoid reading all the above posts again, the Pranteras I would recommend would be Capri File, Spoiler, Letter to Lorenzo and perhaps Zoe Trope. This reminds me that I still have five of her books to read: The Side of the Moon, The Kingdom of Fanes, The Young Italians, Conversations with Lord Byron on Perversion..., and the pseudonymous Sabine. As three of these are out of print it's of doubtful relevance recommendations-wise, but I am nothing if not a completist...

(The William Boyd thing is in hand, Blixa; thanks!)

A quickie on Amanda Prantera's 1995 novel, The Kingdom of Fanes. This is an odd one as it's the only book of hers which has never been issued in paperback, even though the hardback was published by her staunch allies at Bloomsbury. The hardback, it must be said, is a lovely little thing, smaller than a normal paperback and beautifully illustrated by Connie Prantera (her daughter?).

The story is something else. It's a fantasy novel, perhaps with parallels to our own world, but if there were I missed them. It's narrated by Crown Princess Alexa of All the Fanes, and tells of her arranged marriage to the wicked Duke Raymond of Crow Mount and the family born to her. Bizarrely, there is a Great Secret which her father explains to her before her marriage: that if any twins are born to a Fane, the second one must be given to the nearby Salvans. No reason is given for this, and it's so abruptly crowbarred into the text - and forms such a crucial part of the plot to follow, that I can only assume that Prantera found herself writing a directionless exercise in fantasy prose, and spliced the storyline in afterwards.

There follows a series of battles, exiles and that sort of thing, largely concerned with the development of steel (Crow Mount has rich iron deposits), but the whole thing seemed almost like a subtle satire on fantasy novels and so never really grew any strength of its own. By the last third I was skimming through and I'm not entirely sure what happened at the end. The writing is not bad, even interesting to begin with before the plot starts creaking, but overall I must admit that this is one of those books that is out of print with good reason.

Just picked up Spoiler none others in Borders last night - the best place to shelter from a deluge. I don't see comments here JS, but you do recommend it yes?

Originally Posted by Jophn Self

the Pranteras I would recommend would be Capri File, Spoiler, Letter to Lorenzo and perhaps Zoe Trope

Looks like he does.

yes, didn't know if he'd read it since then.

Try message 9, Digger!