None of this is particularly suspenseful — the novel’s chief revelation is telegraphed about halfway through the story — but the writing is occasionally quite funny, and the tale of an expat’s life in the gorgeous, seductive Italian countryside is engaging, as anyone who has seen a Merchant-Ivory film can tell you.
Andrew Sean Greer’s Villa Coco has the summery, entertaining feel of someone writing whatever he feels like writing ... Full of larger-than-life characters, doing larger-than-life things and teaching larger-than-life lessons ... Greer has such a light, nimble touch — the color of a dress or the studied messiness of a room conveys a lot — that Villa Coco reads like a grand adventure, not a lesson. Long story short: I have no notes, other than that I wish it were longer.
Villa Coco is all but frescoed with figurative language, and Greer’s seemingly effortless storytelling belies the careful craft of his metaphors and similes ... This is a fundamentally pleasant book for unpleasant times, the kind of novel in which a car breaks down and that turns out to be exactly what should have happened. As Greer ultimately suggests, true charm is something you have to try on as you might a dead man’s suit, until what feels counterfeit becomes truly your own. It often begins in fraud and grows into a funny story—sometimes passing, fleetingly, through sorrow on the way. In that regard, the relentlessly charming Villa Coco is its own proof of concept.
Villa Coco isn’t mere ice cream; it’s stracciatella gelato served in one of the most beautiful places on earth ... A faint aroma of Alice in Wonderland wafts through these pages, reinforced by Greer’s elegant felicity with non sequiturs ... How quickly one falls under the spell of this perfect summer diversion about a young man trying to figure out what kind of 'life of consequence' he’s going to lead.
Has no...satirical bite. For a while, it also has little in the way of shade to offset its sunniness. Put another way, this is la dolce vita with few unwelcome traces of sourness ... But it would be churlish to take Greer to task here. He clearly set out to produce a novel packed with warmth, wit, and charm, and he pulls this off admirably.
The book’s attempt to charm has the opposite effect. The mad excess Greer seems to be aiming for in his extended early descriptions of the villa, for instance, is tiresome and stodgy — and this from a writer usually so light of touch ... There is only a story of friendship to give order to the chaos, with the result that when events of significance do happen — a sudden death, a daring heist, incriminating revelations about the fictional Baronessa’s past — they get lost in the crush.
Do you fancy reading a funny, charming novel to take your mind off things? The American author Andrew Sean Greer reckons he can answer your prayers ... Does he pull it off? The answer is… hmm ... The problem with this, and with Greer’s aim of making us laugh, smile, enjoy, relax, be charmed and so on, is that for all the frantic antics, it’s not really funny very often. He does do his best ... It feels forced, as though Greer decided to write a funny book, then pressed his will on the material rather than letting the story and characters decide what they wanted it to be ... Overall it’s a step down from Greer’s intentions.
His tale...veers too close to whimsy ... He is in addition unashamedly sentimental, and though his other characters pale in her shadow, the Baronessa, with her stories and her machinations, her loyalty, wit and courage, and the love and admiration of our young man, casts the requisite spell – delivering, in the end, an enchantment threaded through with hope.
Richly descriptive, wonderfully written ... Splendidly paced, this bildungsroman is, in keeping with Greer’s signature qualities, funny, moving, and quietly profound from start to finish.
Greer has become a virtuoso at crafting charmingly episodic novels ... Greer has created a delightfully eccentric tale filled with colorful characters and unusual developments ... Seductive.
If you’re looking for a work of fiction that’s charming from start to finish, Villa Coco is the book for you. It’s seductively entertaining from the get-go ... Greer’s novel is a Tuscan romp that overflows with sunshine and surprises while providing a deep meditation on growing up, growing old and navigating the many crossroads in between.
Charming ... Greer breathes life into the Baronessa and her world and captures its appeal to Geoffrey, fashioning the novel into a box of treasures. This light and airy bildungsroman is great fun.
