A housewife and a music teacher in a small Midwest town (Ohio?) love to talk about what-might-have-been, instead of facing the reality that she has no control over her wayward daughter and is married to a boring shoe cobbler who picked her out of the gutter and he is a mediocre, poor music teacher, bullied by his mother into giving what little he has for her's and his lazy brother's vacations. Meanwhile, the rich benefactress of the town is crippled at the thought of what the townspeople supposedly think of her. An ode to small-minded, neurotic people, and a talented character study. ( )

Come Back to Sorrento is a beautifully written, tenderly told, sometimes painfully insightful novel about the stories people make up to give their lives a feeling of purpose, inevitability, and magnificence. Set in small town Ohio, it’s mainly the story of two friends, a soprano who became a wife and mother instead of an acclaimed artist, and a high school music instructor who bases his self worth on a continually recollected year he spent in Paris among writers and musicians. Together the two create such a wonderful ongoing narrative of their lives and talents that they are lost without each other. ( )