Description
From Library Journal
In Schneider's debut novel, orphaned Jo Shepherd nurses her beloved grandfather Frank through his last illness. Bereft after his
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death, Jo experiences a vision of the Virgin Mary, who tells her to pursue her dream of becoming an artist in Italy. The action switches effortlessly from Jo's home in the Pacific Northwest to Florence, Rome, and New York and then back again, as Jo relives the odyssey that helped her grow up. Deeply involved with two young men to whom she attaches herself during her travels, she compares and contrasts them to Jack, her best friend and boyfriend, who has been in her life forever. While she reaches personal milestones and works through her grief, secrets emerge within and around Jo, who continues to search for love, peace, and meaning in her life. Well recommended.
-Ellen R. Cohen, Rockville, MD
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Product Description
A moving first novel that sets the burgeoning creative and romantic life of a young woman against the backdrop of the art and history of Florence
Jo Shepherd grew up in the Pacific Northwest under the loving care of her grandfather, Frank. After spending months nursing him through his final painful illness, Jo receives a glorious vision of the Virgin Mary, who tells her to head to Italy to live out her dream of becoming an artist. In doing so Jo must leave behind her childhood sweetheart, Jack, facing the prospect of losing him forever.
In Florence, Jo's intense artistic visions begin to find fruition, but her magical odyssey is complicated when she meets two extraordinary young American men, Chad and Walter. By day, Jo paints--women in a marketplace, a street musician near the Duomo, the view of the Arno from the Piazzale Michelangelo. By night, she sketches in a tavern, while Chad and Walter vie for her attention and pay for her meals. As the lives of these three friends become more deeply entwined, the revelation of painful secrets threatens to destroy their delicate balance. In one heart-wrenching scene, one of Jo's paintings is badly damaged, and the ensuing heartbreak causes her to flee Stateside. In New York City, and eventually back in the Pacific Northwest, Jo begins to face up to the legacy of her time in Italy, and to her future with or without Jack.
All We Know of Love deftly blends themes of female spirituality, creat-
ivity, and romantic awakening. Along the way there is love left behind and love regained; a bloody fight and a ruined painting; miraculous visions and a child lost. Alternately lyrical, engaging, and funny, this is a remarkable achievement by an evocative new voice in women's fiction.
From Publishers Weekly
Told with a watery melancholy brightened by flickers of wry humor, this debut novel sends 20-year-old Joanna Shepherd to Florence on behalf of the Virgin Mary. After Joanna's beloved grandfather, FrankAher last living relative, who raised her from the age of fourAdies of cancer on their eastern Washington farm, a vision of Mary appears to Joanna in the kitchen, instructing her amid "an overpowering scent of lilacs... and white light" to "go to Europe and become a painter." Joanna plans her departure quickly, her resolve swayed only by a bittersweet farewell to Jack Pearce, a childhood friend, which sparks "years of fantasies." Resolutely, she journeys to Italy, rents a room from an elderly widow, Lena Cabrini, and begins to absorb the magnificent city and its art. Cutting across the Piazza della Repubblica one afternoon, Joanna is drawn by a cellist whose music "[makes her] want to paint." The captivating musician, Chad Lesa, turns out to be an American studying at the political science institute, and he introduces her to Walter Haffner, a wealthy student who takes a financial interest in Joanna's artwork. They all form an instant connection, but love complicates the trio's dynamics, as do Joanna's abiding feelings for Jack. Schneider's portrait of an artist is convincing, but the novel's
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