This novel is about a teenage girl from Italy whose family moves to Los Angeles in the 1990s so her dad can try to direct a movie. I suppose the book was well-written, but just really not my cup of tea at all - that kind of book with a seedy, sad, dark atmosphere filled with unlikeable people, too much drugs and alcohol, and unpleasant sexual encounters. It was a bit of a slog but I dragged myself to finish it. The author definitely is good at establishing a sense of place and time and a certain vibe, though there’s something so specific about it that makes me wonder if it was semi-autobiographical. (Though I hope not for her sake!)

Things That Happened Before The Earthquake is a coming-of-age novel, chronicling the experiences of an Italian teenage girl named Eugenia, who moves from Sicily to Los Angeles in the 1990s, right after the riots stemming from the killing of Rodney King. Her father is a filmmaker and thinks his family can make it big in Hollywood's movie culture, but their experiences reflect a vast wasteland of negatives - Eugenia's public high school is gang turf, her parents star connections are with people almost as low on the social totem poles as they are and the extent of their assimilation is to embrace the cheap, plastic goods found in abundance in 99-cent stores. So Eugenia develops a relationship with the Virgin Mary who she appeals to for the maternal intervention that she lacks in her home life since neither her mother or her mother's mother display the characteristics she so desperately craves and both are too busy baring their naked bodies to realize how much Eugenia is concealing.

The novel is written like a movie script being shot with a single-lens camera, moving focus from one scene to another, as the author who serves as casting director introduces a myriad of characters who appear, acts in one scene and exits stage left just as quickly. While they are in the limelight, the audience is asked to focus on the actors' physical attributes as if this is the only way to know them. This reel-style narrative doesn't give much time for character development, and even family roles like that of Eugenia's brother, Timoteo, feel like they are played by extras.

The writing is unconventional and thus offers some intrigue. The formulaic immigrant story wrapped up in a multigenerational family saga, the comparison between the real life mother and grandmother and the girls dream relationship with the Virgin Mary, both of which bring disappointment, all added a layer of interest. 
The author cleverly used the time setting and plot conflicts to effectively reflect both American politics and Italy's history of fascism.

The narrative is rife with profane language and graphic descriptions that seems to have been written for shock value rather than entertainment. Familial relationships are all inappropriate in some way, falling somewhere on the spectrum between incest and physical abuse, and behavior that was described as Bohemian and artsy is really statutory rape.
I had issues with how characters were introduced, described only in terms of their appearance. While I appreciate that this writing could be a satiric look at the appearance-based movie culture, it gave the book a superficial tone.

A raw, honest and exquisitely foreign look at early 1990's Los Angeles through the eyes of a not-so-innocent teen girl. (NOT a YA book)

Thanks to Doubleday books for providing me with a finished copy for review purposes - all opinions are my own.

When a book opens on an early 90's LA beach with an Italian family (including the grandmother) sunbathing in the nude, you just know it's not going to be a typical story. And oh my goodness, it surely wasn't typical! THINGS THAT HAPPEN BEFORE THE EARTHQUAKE takes place in the time period between the 1992 riots in LA and the big earthquake in 1994, and follows a family from Rome who has moved to LA for the movie business. Or, for the father to try to make it in the movie business, that is - the rest of the family is just along for the ride. Eugenia, the 16-year-old narrator, and her younger brother Timoteo are vehemently opposed to the move and struggle to assimilate as they must navigate US public schools for the first time, along with American and LA culture in general.

Eugenia and her narrative style are oh so Italian, and oh so unflinchingly brash. There is sex, and there is NO holding back on the description of it. The sex isn't always happy and it is rarely pretty, and it's used as a literary tool in the telling of Eugenia's coming of age story. There are drugs, and there are hints of impropriety in various parent-child relationships and there are just a whole lot of down-and-dirty gritty descriptions of people and the Los Angeles setting. All of these things made this story a bit of a wild ride for me - one minute I was grimacing at a description of a sex act and then the next Eugenia was back on an Italian island for the summer and it was achingly beautiful and my heart just melted at this new look at the same girl. I ended up kind of falling in love with her and her determination to assimilate to this wild new world despite her eccentric family and the otherworldly nature of LA.

Highly recommended for eyes-wide-open readers willing to take the plunge into a raw coming of age story told from a unique perspective, as well as for LA-lovers in general.

I thought this book was very different. I really felt bad for Eugenia. She came to a new country where she barely could communicate, had no support from her parents and made really bad choices. I felt like she went from one bad situation to the next. I didn't feel like I could connect with her. There were some parts that made me chuckle but for the most part this family was a hot mess!

I am not the right audience for this book. I usually like young adult books but this one was just too much. The time period was just wrong. I couldn’t relate to pop culture in the 80s. I couldn’t relate to the sexuality. I really couldn’t relate to any of it so I bailed about 20% in. I hung in there as long as I could.

Things That Happened Before the Earthquake is a very 90s tale. It covers the hits - LA Riots, gangs, OJ Simpson, that weird time when everyone wore vintage and there was a nostalgia for the 60s.....

The story itself...is okay. Eugenia is kind of a brat, but so was I in the 90s. It's very much a slice of time where everything was important and parents were the work.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

What an aptly titled book: "Things That Happened." This is a book about things happening - one after another in monotonous succession. Well, it's actually about an Italian girl, Eugenia, who relocates to Los Angeles with her family in the 1990s, but where it endeavors to be a candid coming of age story, it falls short with a pace that languishes and a promise of emotional poignancy that never really delivers. I was unable to form an emotional connection with any of these characters, and the whole thing came across as rather trite.

Where Things That Happened Before the Earthquake failed for me was the style of narration. It was cold and detached in a way that I'm unable to reconcile with the POV of a teenage girl who's been uprooted from her home and transported into a different culture. Eugenia envelops herself in what she refers to as her "rubber suit" - she remains purposefully detached from a lot of what transpires around her, and the narrative result is that it's almost impossible to understand her behavior or personality. She seems more mature than your average 15 year old while also making a lot of terrible teenage decisions.

Having read this, I now completely understand why no one seems to know whether to classify this novel as adult or YA. On the one hand, it deals with teenage issues - sex, love, identity - but on the other hand, there's some seriously dark and graphic stuff in here. Trigger warning for animal abuse, and... kind of rape? I guess? Minor spoiler: Eugenia's first time having sex is... potentially non-consensual but then swept under the rug by the narrative and never really addressed again, and that whole thing made me really uncomfortable.

But onto the good - this is a 3 star review after all. Contrary to my chronic tendency toward negativity, I didn't hate this book. Chiara Barzini is a fantastic writer, and even through Eugenia's detached narration, Barzini's prose shines. This story is told with unflinching honesty and humor, and at times it's a delight to read.

Ultimately: I didn't love it, I didn't hate it. This was just a kind of monotonous read that I wanted to end much sooner than it did.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you Netgalley, Doubleday Books, and Chiara Barzini.

Very original. Like going through a time capsule of the 90s in LA. Preferred the first half of the book.

I did not find the plot to be as engrossing as I had hoped and did not finish this.

I really could not read this and I won't review online.

I’ve always been a sucker for a coming of age story. There are unending compelling ways to tell a tale of growing up; the struggles of adolescence are both universal and unique.

Chiara Barzini’s debut novel is “Things That Happened Before the Earthquake.” It’s the story of a young Italian girl brought by her filmmaker parents to Los Angeles circa 1992; she’s largely left to her own devices when it comes to navigating this new life, and unsurprisingly, it doesn’t come easy.

Through this lens, Barzini paints a portrait not only of one girl’s grappling with the establishment of her identity, but of the city of Los Angeles; we see L.A. as defined by the people who dream within its borders.

Eugenia is a fairly typical Italian teenager living in Rome. Her life is upended when her filmmaker parents decide – largely on the strength of a successful canned meat commercial – to make the move to America. Specifically, the San Fernando Valley.

They land in a city still reeling from the riots of just a few weeks before. While Eugenia’s parents immediately start striving to make the movie that they believe will make them their fortune, she is left to muddle through. Her limited English immediately marks her as different; she’s an outcast from day one.

She does find people with whom to connect – some briefly, others deeply. A Persian gangster wannabe. A young slacker working in his obese mother’s memorabilia store. A free-spirited classmate who lives in Topanga Canyon with her twin brother and musician father. These brief flashes of connectivity serve as her anchor, something to hold onto as her family is swallowed up by the roller-coaster process of creating their film.

But the pendulums of these relationships tend to swing; the shifting nature of interpersonal dynamics – particularly those of young people – threatens to overwhelm Eugenia even as she strives to find definition and validation through those around her.

And when the figurative seismic shifts in her life give way to literal ones, she’s left to decide just what these relationships – with her family, with her friends, with those who might be something more – mean to her … and what she’s willing to do to hold onto them.

“Things That Happened Before the Earthquake” is a stunning piece of work, an exquisitely detailed look at one girl’s efforts to embrace, adapt to and engage with an altogether new culture. Her successes and failures in doing so make for a story that is alternatingly sweet and sharp as she searches for her place in this strange new land.

The fact that this is Barzini’s debut novel is astonishing; there’s an easy craftsmanship on display that belies the notion that this is anyone’s first book. It’s not just the strength of characterization, although everyone from Eugenia on down is richly, vividly realized. It’s not just the beauty of the narrative, although the story being told is almost tactile in its sensual structure. It’s not the perfectly captured spirit of time and place, although you’ll be hard-pressed not to be mesmerized by the spirited recreation of early-1990s L.A. And it’s not just the power of the prose, although Barzini’s sentences are powerfully nuanced, blending the sweeping with the subtle.

It’s all those things. And more. It’s exceptional.

One of the joys of being a book reviewer is when you read something that you might not have chosen on your own, only to have it turn out to be an outstanding experience. That’s what “Things That Happened Before the Earthquake” was for me, an unanticipated delight packed with powerful storytelling, engaging character and some top-shelf writing.

Chiara Barzini. Remember that name. There’s a good chance we’re all going to be hearing it a lot more in the years to come. And if you have any sort of affinity for a tale well-told, you need to check out “Things That Happened Before the Earthquake.”

Eugenia is not a typical American teenager. For one thing, she's Italian. Her bohemian parents decided to move from Rome to Los Angeles to make movies, and as it's the early 1990s, they make this decision while watching the L.A. riots on television. 

After the family moves to California and Eugenia is introduced to her American high school, things sadly do not get better. She is dropped into a dark and dangerous city, in a dark and dangerous school. There are metal detectors at the doors, actual gangs in the hallways, and Eloise is completely alone and still struggling with the language. 

As the weeks go by, Eugenia manages to learn her way around the school, makes her way around her neighborhood, and figures out how to cover her emotions in a rubber suit to survive in the world she finds herself in. And she does get a better grasp on her English, forge some tenuous friendships, and discovers a true passion for literature, making it her goal to get to that advanced literature class before she graduates. And that's just the beginning of Eugenia's story. 

Things That Happened Before the Earthquake is a beautifully written coming-of-age story, but it is a harsh one to read. There are some very difficult sex scenes, and the way Eugenia handles it, how she handles all the things that happen to her, can be very difficult to process. But it is a brutally honest look at growing up in a strange land, at finding a path in life despite an unsupportive family, and at surviving in a brutal wasteland. 

While Eugenia and her family and schoolmates are a fascinating collection of characters, the sense of place works as more than a supporting character in this novel. Occasionally taking over the stage is Los Angeles and its inhabitants, from Rodney King to O.J. Simpson, from riots to earthquakes to gangs, and with the constant reminder of Hollywood and all of her charms. Italy also plays a strong role, and even on a short family trip to South Dakota, the place becomes visceral with the sights and scents that surround Eugenia. 

Novelist and screenwriter Chiara Barzini has created a sensual masterpiece of character and place. Her dedication to the moments of Eugenia's life, the specificity of each scene, the powerful emotions that envelop you as you read makes me wonder just how fictional some of this story is. But real or imagined, the strength of her writing is real. It is brutal, it is honest, and it is real. This is a book that will stick with you long after all the pages have been turned. 



Galleys for Things That Happened Before the Earthquake were provided by Doubleday Books through NetGalley.com, with many thanks.

{My Thoughts}

What Worked For Me
A Laugh Out Loud Beginning – Let me be clear, Things That Happened Before the Earthquake is NOT a light book. Still, Chiara Barzini had me in stitches more than once. The first came as 15-year old Eugenia suffered the humiliation of going with her very Italian family to a California beach for the very first time.

“They moved into the shade, nibbling on their soggy sandwiches, chunks of cream cheese getting stuck in their pubic hair. Grandma graced us by putting her shirt back on the duration of the picnic. I didn’t want to be there.”

From there, things only got worse! Adjusting to a wildly new culture was difficult for the entire family, but Mom, Dad and Grandma had it the worst, much to Eugenia’s chagrin.

Caught Between Two Cultures – When Eugenia’s parents make the decision to move to Los Angeles, she and her younger brother are not happy. They’ve watched the news from LA: rioting over the Rodney King decision, gangs, pollution. Why would anyone want to live there? It’s no better when they arrive and are plopped down into the middle of the San Fernando Valley; sent to schools where they’re obvious outsiders. Eugenia longs for the life she led in Rome, but her survival is dependent on assimilating here. That journey is at the heart of Things That Happened Before the Earthquake. We see Eugenia slowly learn how to navigate through the halls of high school and the larger city around her. She gathers a small motley group of friends, making some wise and same very poor choices along the way.

A Strong Voice – Things That Happened Before the Earthquake is a story told in first person and the voice of Eugenia rings strong and sharp throughout. I clearly felt Eugenia’s frustration with her parents, and the extreme choices they made. She and her brother often had to pay the price for their father’s dreams. Eugenia lived in a world of chaos that she was forced to take for granted. I ached for her as she grappled to find her place in life and suffered along the way. Eugenia’s forays of the heart left me feeling both pleased and melancholy. She made some poor decisions, and her reasons weren’t always obvious, but they felt true to her character. By the end, Eugenia had grown into an entirely new person, one I had begun to admire.

What Didn’t
Too Much Detail – At times the detail overwhelmed the story, and in doing so, took away from it. This seems like a small point, but for me was a big flaw. Sometimes the excess detail took the form of odd imagery, such as a rubber suit that Eugenia used as a form of protection when she felt vulnerable. While I appreciated her vulnerability, the suit seemed like overkill.

Trip Back to Italy – Eugenia and her brother spent a summer back in Italy that could have easily been left out of the book. For me it took away far more than it added to the story.

{The Final Assessment}

I have to be honest, Things That Happened Before the Earthquake was not an easy book to like. There were times when I was frustrated by the pace and the characters. Eugenia’s journey was painful and slow, but it was also funny and heartwarming. The context of when and where she was really worked and the further I got into her story, the more I liked this book. By the end, I truly loved the person Eugenia had become. If I’d graded this book at the halfway point, it would have been no more than a C, but the last quarter of the book really wowed me. Grade: B-

Note: I received a copy of this book from the publisher (via NetGalley) in exchange for my honest review.

Eugenia, a typical Italian teenager, is dragged by her family to a new life in Los Angeles just weeks after the 1992 riots. Her hippie filmmaker parents are in heaven as they try to break into Hollywood. Eugenia and her brother are not quite so impressed.

She flounders in the world of her public high school, where the Bloods and Crips, Persian gang members, and fast food culture reign supreme. As she tries to figure out who she is, Eugenia meets Henry, who runs his mother’s movie memorabilia store, and Deva, who introduces her to the countercultural environment of Topanga Canyon. Just when Eugenia starts to imagine a future for herself, the 1994 earthquake shakes her world down to the foundations.

Things that Happened Before the Earthquake is a beautifully written book, with lush, evocative images and rich cultural details. That did not make me love it. I never connected with Eugenia, and frequently found myself wondering why she felt compelled to do the things she did. And her family—and their motivations—completely baffled me. This is not a bad book, just a bad book for me. The writing is fantastic, but I never connected to the characters, so the writing lost its impact for me.

(Galley provided by Doubleday Books via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.)

Thank you to Doubleday Books for sending me this free copy!

This book is about Eugenia, a teenager plucked from her home in Rome to California's San Fernando Valley due to her filmmaker parents hoping to make it big in Hollywood. Her past and present homes could not be more different, and she struggles to assimilate herself to an American lifestyle. Her experiences are often gritty and raw, and she never holds back in her narration.

I've mentioned in a previous post that coming-of-age stories aren't typically favorites of mine, but I really enjoyed this one. I loved reading her Italian perspective on such "American" things like her suburban neighborhood and her public high school. Plus, the descriptions of each place she went were wonderfully crafted. I felt truly immersed in the islands of Italy and smog-filled California worlds. While the pacing was sometimes slow, I recommend picking up a copy and reading about these very original characters.

This book took me nearly a week. I kept putting it down and had to force myself to pick it back up every time. I did not want to finish it but I did so out of guilt. It actually picked up about 75% in but it was never what I would term "enjoyable." It wasn't that the writing was bad or even the plot, really, but I never connected with this. It was written in a narrative style and jumped around a lot. It was supposed to be linear but there were weird gaps of time that threw me off. I appreciated the reflection of LA in the 90's and the fish out of water first person POV but that was about it. The whole thing felt too fantastic to me even though every word could have been true. This might really sing for some people, especially if you have a real nostalgia for the LA of the early 90s but it didn't quite come together for me. One tip: throw your hopes for political correctness out the window if you do read this.

Things That Happened Before the Earthquake comes out next week on August 15, 2017, and you can purchase HERE.

When I told my Roman schoolmates we were moving to America they all gasped. I should refuse to move to an imperialist country. America was evil. That was the bottom line. Ours was a politically active institution. Every year students conducted a sit-in on the school grounds to protest government decisions about public education. The real activists printed pamphlets and screamed communist slogans into megaphones. The rest of us like the excuse of sleeping away from home. We camped in sleeping bags inside the freezing gym, smoked hash, and talked about "the system." Nobody washed for days. Halls were littered with cigarette butts, posters, and empty cartons of pizza-our only sustenance. Most of the boys had anxious Italian mothers who snuck home-cooked meals through the gates. They didn't want to look like mama's boys so they ate their food alone in the restrooms.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this book, but anything that starts off with someone "making out" with their grandmother is clearly not for me. I have not rated or reviewed this book.

I found this novel (labelled ‘Fictional Memoir by Francesca Marciano) such a fun read, albeit uncomfortable and tragic in parts. It is a beautifully rendered coming-of-age novel whose main character resonated with me deeply. Eugenia’s vulnerability, isolation and empathic nature made her extremely likeable and I was rooting for her throughout. She is victim of the eccentricities and personal hells of the people around her and her struggle through this is admirable.

The title provides the key to the narrative structure; the earthquake pivots the novel around and projects Eugenia forward to her conclusion (freedom). The earthquake occurs just after the main climax of the novel (although there are many climaxes, some of them are truly devastating) ironically putting a stop to the chaos and confusion that was happening beforehand.

Eugenia is a fifteen year old Italian who moves to Los Angeles with her parents and brother (and initially also a fabulous grandmother, who is brilliantly hilarious). This novel is embedded in 1990’s Los Angeles with references to historical/political events - both in America and Italy . (Eugenia’s only prior knowledge of America before the move was gleaned from ‘The Bold and the Beautiful’ – which portrayed a very different Los Angeles to that which Eugenia and her family experience.)

The culture shock reverberates and hums and sends shock waves through her life which jump start her into action (as readers we ask ourselves if the move was not the actual earthquake referenced in the title), the novel follows Eugenia as she looks to carve her space and place in this new home. The difficulties of fitting in and identity, already part and parcel of adolescence, balloon out as she tries to understand and find her place within a school where gangs and identity politics are deeply embedded into the school social system (as an Italian she doesn’t fit in with any of the groups). She discovers her sexuality, and initially uses it to numb and shield herself but this then evaporates when she begins to open herself up to a newfound friend (with her own set of complications at home).

The novel is divided up into three parts labelled: departure, return and arrival. Barzini adds an intriguing layer to the novel when she Eugenia and her brother return to Italy during the summer holidays; they stay with their uncle and his girlfriend on a small Aeolian Island of Sicily. I loved Barzini’s description of the island. The brutality and violence of nature and isolation is further emphasised. Eugenia realises that she no longer will fit in anywhere anymore, she is caged in no matter what her circumstances.

Eugenia doesn’t ever try to understand or justify the people around her. She is submissive to life; from the man she loses her virginity to, to Santino’s judgement of her when his wife changes the way she sees herself (she looks on when her beloved donkey Angelina is brutally murdered in front of her eyes). She submits to her parent’s eccentric, egocentric and unrealistic dreams of America and the film they are shooting (she even puts her own dreams on hold and keeps them quiet while it bubbles softly under the surface; we don’t understand what Eugenia feels about her unconditional offer to enter a college based on her writing until Eugenia decides to accept it).

Ultimately this is a novel about family; how families love and how dysfunction communicates chaos and pain, how we try to please one another in order not to feel alone or disappointing.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this novel especially because of Barzini’s beautiful crisp descriptions of place and the contrasts she creates between; the vastness of the sea, the enclosure of school, the suffocation of an island, and the brutality of (human) nature.

Thanks to Doubleday Books and NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I really liked Things that Happened Before the Earthquake. It's set in Los Angeles, in the San Fernando Valley, during the '90s right after the LA riots and just before the Northridge earthquake.
I'm very family familiar with this area and with this era, having lived in Los Angeles for many years, and I was here during the Northridge earthquake. When Eugenia talks about Topanga Canyon, and about the indescribable quality of the light (that has inspired many a movie), I know exactly what she sees.

This is a coming of age story of an Italian teenager, Eugenia, who comes to Los Angeles from Rome with her family. Her father is going to make movies but it turns out to be harder than he thinks. Eugenia has a hard time making friends, and she goes through some very difficult times at school. Her family doesn't fit in in LA, and she's at the age when that's all she wants to do. She falls into a life of experimentation in all the wrong ways, and her parents aren't paying attention to her at all.

The book loses some of its steam when the family goes back to Italy for the summer. Life is much more rustic and close to nature, and there some are unpleasant scenes. When the family gets back, life has changed for them all and not for the best.

In the end, I was pulling for Eugenia to break away and find her own path. This is a very interesting and compelling book.

Chiara Barzini’s Things That Happened Before the Earthquake was a novel built on a plausible premise, an exploration of assimilation into American culture through the eyes of an Italian teenager coming of age. I neither loved nor hated this novel, but I could see where the author was trying to go, and there did exist moments where I appreciated the bravery of her writing.

Eugenia’s parents come to the U.S. with stars in their eyes, hoping to make it big as filmmakers in L.A. They’re free-spirited in a truly European way, being shocked at the citations they receive for sunbathing topless on the beach and bewildered by things like private healthcare. They buy a Cadillac to fit in and change their wardrobe upon arrival, not wanting to be typecast as Italian gringos, wanting to fit in and instantly conform into their new surroundings.

Eugenia, is a typical teenager in a lot of ways. Aside from the fact that she has to worry about whether or not she’ll be threatened with deportation in American customs at the airport—and the fact that L.A. natives keep confusing her Italian heritage with French, which acutely annoys her—she searches for her own identity in much the same way as many teenage girls raised in the dazzling lights of a big city. She’s needy, clingy to people who often have little interest in her, exploring her surroundings and individuality through her newfound sexuality, the occasional recreational drug and a pretty consistent series of adventures brought on by risky, naïve behavior. She’s hungry for positive attention, desperate to find herself and fit in, from the “pump up” sneakers she thought would be cool to wear her first day of school (the other girls, she finds, have already graduated to wearing heels) to the slew of sexual trysts and arguably degrading positions she finds herself in. There are times when I questioned whether Eugenia was fearless or stupid, brave or simply naïve—but that is what coming of age is, isn’t it? A combination of all these things in its own right. Several of the scenes came off as memories of my own high-school experiences, of the other students around me all struggling to fit in and claim our places in the hierarchy that exists in every American school. Still, there were times where some of the scenes came off as uncomfortable and strange to me—but those were the moments when Barzini’s own fearlessness as a writer was on full display.

A key note to consider about this novel is that Things That Happened Before the Earthquake is exactly what this book felt like: things that happened.

The plot was pretty loose, and, for the most part, simply read like a series of events—misadventures if you will—that happened to a teenage girl after moving from her native Rome to the scorching Los Angeles, California, just after the riots brought on by the beating of Rodney King in ’92. With that in mind, the setting was rich, the landscape described down to the detail so that you could feel the grit in the Valley air, smell the salt of the sea on the shores of Italy. This novel was punctuated by pop culture events, like milestones that moved the story along on a timeline. The earthquake of 94’, the election of Silvo Berlusconi, O.J. Simpson and the white Bronco, gun to his head. It’s all seen through the eyes of Eugenia, commented on by a voice still trying to find itself. And that did have its own appeal, for sure.

Here you’ll find a slow read driven by finding oneself in the midst of chaos, rather than being heavily driven by plotting, irony, or plot twists. That will appeal to a lot of readers. It was a book that read at a lulling pace but that still had its share of shocking, difficult and awkward moments that pierced through the lull. The characters were flawed in a way that seemed real, authentic, unaffected and devoid of pretenses, and for that readers can be grateful, because that can be hard to find. Fiction is littered with unthought-out stereotypes masquerading as engaging characters, but you won’t find a graveyard of those typecast bones here.

Things That Happened had a sort of hippie-ish soul to it, exploring the crevices of Italian culture and how they made assimilation into American society both difficult and noteworthy at the same time. Barzini was at times bold in her depictions of what unaffected thinking sounds like, what authentic living looks like, from “making out” with your grandmother, to rave parties in the middle of the desert to an inside glimpse of commune life. And, the cover art is phenomenal! (5 stars for that!) But, the slowness of the read couldn’t always hold my attention, and the loose plotting failed to grab me the way I wanted to be held by this story within these pages. For that, I award a solid 3 stars. ***