You Were There Before My Eyes

October 15, 2017

Desperate to escape her dull life in her Italian village, Giovanna leaps at the opportunity to marry former childhood playmate Giovanni and move to America, even if he's more interested in acquiring an efficient housewife than a lover. Rechristening themselves John and Jane, the couple forge a life together in 1914 Detroit, where John is an enthusiastic disciple and employee of Henry Ford, and Jane devotes herself to running their household. Riva (Marlene Dietrich: A Life), a first-time novelist at age 92, relates the pair's story in a series of connected vignettes taking place over several decades with a large cast of supporting characters representing a variety of immigrant experiences along the way. The novel is dense with historical detail about everyday life during the period, but the frequently awkward sentence structure and overreliance on difficult-to-read dialect greatly disrupt the flow of the story. While aspects of John and Jane's journey initially seem promising, the characters are never fully developed, and their supposed emotional growth is unconvincing. VERDICT Riva is the daughter of actress Marlene Dietrich, which may generate some interest, but most readers fascinated by the era and subject matter would do better to pick up Ken Follett's Fall of Giants or Adriana Trigiani's The Shoemaker's Wife.--Mara Bandy Fass, Champaign P.L., IL

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from September 15, 2017
The oft-heard truth that America is a country of immigrants comes alive in Riva's grand tale of Giovanna, an Italian who emigrates to America as a young bride in 1913. Her transformation into Jane is not just the story of her ambitions and adjustments but also those of her husband, John, and their extended circle of friends in Highland Park, outside Detroit, including German Hannah and Fritz, Austrian Rudy, Polish Carl and Peter, Romanian Stan, and English Jimmy. The excitement of the age is manifest in the pride of the Ford family of employees and in their thrill at establishing life in a new place. Riva's flair for recreating the drama of such moments as the iceman's delivery and her nuanced capturing of the insecurities of naturalized immigrants combine to create a vivid reading experience. Here we see America's growing splendor across four decades and relive the tremendous social and industrial developments. As the final chapters address the growing reality and impact of intolerance and fascism during WWII, Riva, who, as Marlene Dietrich's daughter, has a keen sense of the past, offers a timely and riveting reminder of the often-overlooked lessons of history in this vital tapestry of American immigrant life.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)