RICHARD PAUL EVANS Many novels, especially those tagged as being “romantic” have had sunny Italy as a
background. Very often the historic foundation vies so strongly with story content that reader so often think he had been tricked into reading yet another travel brochure. Novelist Richard Paul Evan, certainly overcomes any such tendencies in his recent novel “The Last Promise.”
He has made skillful use of the comforting warmth and lassitude of the seductive warmth and charm of the famous wine country – chianti's home – which ,alone,has made the Tuscany area a place in which to seek out solutions for problems of love twixt and among strange combinations of humans.
I am told Evans, his wife and five children moved to actually live in Italy to soak up some of the local mannerisms. His accounts are first hand views in family tones grasping a strong sense of place; its people and its customs experienced in natural, informal ways. He listened to the artist who asked him to tell the story of her unhappy marriage to an Italian man who lived and loved in a bygone era. He did so and set down much of the mis-alliance. He wrote the love story and discovered another. He set down their love story wit its problems concerning where it took place. The telling , unknowingly perhaps, at times, overcame some of their problems. Both the artist and the writer had personal problems which kept them from living in the United States and these problems are solved by the honest, forthright telling of past events.
A.L.M. January 9, 2006 [c272wds]
