The 45th Nail by Michael LaheyMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
I found it hard to accept the unrealistic plot from the beginning of this book. Bob is a middle-aged teacher of French literature from the USA and he sets off to find his long-lost uncle, believed to have been missing in action during World War 2. He lies to his wife about going to France when in fact his destination is Italy. On arrival in Italy he has his luggage and wallet stolen by a gang of con-men and this apparently forces(?) him to take a series of temporary jobs in order to survive before he can continue his search for his uncle. At this point I began to feel somewhat frustrated with the credibility of the story. I thought that I was reading a tale of war-time exploits and heroism but it had quickly become a tale of farce and slapstick. This impression continued for page after page with situations that I failed to find amusing when all I could think was why did Bob not contact the police, his bank and his deceived spouse before returning to the USA – like any other intelligent person?
However, I continued to read in the hope that I would find something more interesting and intriguing since I had just enough curiosity to find out more. Unfortunately, my knowledge of the Italian language is even less than the unfortunate Bob, so that the many conversations he had with other Italian characters became more than meaningless – frustratingly annoying! There were some passages that could have come out of a travel guide to Italy and the odd vague hint of romance but none that helped me like the general direction the story was taking. When I tried to understand why I was annoyed with the book it was because I was bored with the rambling plot and only when Uncle Jim finally appeared did it start to grab my fading interest. His character’s skin was difficult to get under and his cynicism and bitterness about ‘everything’ almost made my persistence to finish the book worthwhile. I liked the denouement of the book enough to bring back two of the stars for it that had been dumped much earlier. The 45th Nail is very well written throughout but I cannot say I enjoyed it and do not know what kind of reader would like the plot other than fans of Italian culture, food, architecture etc.
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