We've all read about the glories of Rome - Caesar at the Senate, Michelangelo toiling at the Sistine. And anyone's who's ever picked up a glossy magazine knows about the sublime food, hotels, and shopping.
What Megan Williams does in this very appealing selection of short stories, however, is introduce us to modern, everyday Rome - the Rome of a mom desperately trying to find a place to park with rambunctious twins in the back seat; a Rome of Canadian expats being attracted then repelled by Italian mores. In short, a Rome that gives even the most smitten Italophile pause.
The duality of appeal and disgust are most vivid in "The Funeral". In this story a Canadian woman starts out smitten with her buddies at work, a group of not rich but not burdened thirty year olds. They dish and crack wise like a Roman trio of Jerry, George, and Elaine. When a parent of the group passes, however, the eulogist speaks of the man having been ostracized at work because he wouldn't allow himself to be bought off with real estate developers' payola.
The feeling of unease is compounded when she gives Pia a lift back to the city. Pia, considered a bit gauche by the Cool Kids, confided that she, too, was ostracized at work for not falling into line. The way Ms. Williams pivots the main character from being, on advice of the hip gang, indifferent to her little pile of unpaid parking tickets to becoming obsessed with getting them paid (and getting back to Canada) was exquisite yet perfectly natural.
In fact "natural" is the word I would use to describe the great charm of these stories. No pretentiousness, no preciousness, just a skilled, sometimes serious, sometimes poignant look at the lives of people who find themselves in the Eternal City.
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