LUCIA LUCIA

TITLE: LUCIA LUCIA
AUTHOR: ADRIANA TRIGIANI
Pages: 323
Date: 15/03/2009
Grade: 5
Details: no. 1 New York Trilogy
Own

It is 1950 and Lucia Sartori is 25 years old. She's beautiful and ambitious and very happy in her job, working in a chic Fifth Avenue department store in New York for a successful fashion designer, who is also her friend.
Although in 1950's New York women are encouraged to make careers for themselves, the underlying belief is still that as women they should put marriage and children first. Lucia, who loves her job, is not sure she's prepared to give it up for a life of domesticity. And when she does agree to marry a man she adores but knows very little about it leads to heartbreak and scandal.
Adriana Trigiani is a fabulous storyteller. I was pulled in to Lucia's story from the very first paragraph and didn't resurface until I'd finished the last page.
It was fascinating to read about New York in the 1950's. On the one hand it was a world far removed from the one I grew up in, with formal dress codes and clear social distinctions. A world where men still expected to be in control and any independence women had vanished if not on the wedding day, then with the birth of a first child.
On the other hand though, there are glimpses of what the future would bring for women.
As far as Lucia was concerned in this story it appears that it was a case of "be careful what you wish for, because you might just get it". And by the end of the story I wasn't sure whether I should feel sorry for her or celebrate her.