Beginning Middle End - Valeria Luiselli

Sometimes a novel is more about feeling then plot, and Beginning Middle End falls into that category. While it is story about a mother and daughter traveling in Italy, it is also a story of being between generations...a  grandmother. a mother and a daughter, each pulling strands of the novel together. While the mother, a recently divorced author, works to create a new life with her twelve year old daughter, her mother may be suffering from the start of Alzheimer's in California. An interesting aspect is the weaving in of other texts and literary references. The daughter is a voracious reader, and due to their travels she is reading ancient classics, like Pliny. I liked this book quite a bit, even though I never felt fully engaged.