Review of The View from Lake Como by Adriana Trigiani

The View from Lake Como by Adriana Trigiani (2025). Published by Dutton.

If you’re new here, and stumbled upon this blog through the mythical powers of the Internet, welcome! I know a lot of visitors to my website are people who randomly come upon this website through search engines like Google, but I also do have a lot of visitors who come back. Regardless: my name is Ashley, and I started this blog in order to keep track of everything I’m coming across in the world.

This blog post is interesting to me because lately, I’ve been struggling to get in my reading time. I was working for the longest time as a freelancer and contractor, but recently pivoted to an 8-5 job where I’m in an office. It’s not hybrid, so I’m always at home trying to put the puzzle pieces together of how I’ll get my reading done. I also continue working on this blog when I’m not at work, so the Instagram reels I’m fed about a 5-9 feel too real right now.

Anyways, I am trying to find that time to read here and there. Somehow I’m still on track for my Goodreads goal, even though I’ve been slowly giving up on the notion of reading goals in life. I think they can be a little too much pressure and takes the fun off of reading at the end of the day, and I want to read because I want to stay in touch with literature while also pursuing my side career as a writer.

Today’s blog post comes from a book I kind of randomly found on Libby one day. I used to always listen to audiobooks while doing work in grad school, but fell off of that once I started working from home and then at my full-time job. But when I take the bus up to New York, I usually try to fit a book or two in.

And that’s when I listened to The View from Lake Como. I started it at home, but finished the book during a three hour bus ride up north to the city to see some shows. It was a quick listen if we’re going to be honest!

Let’s get into the review.

For Jess, going to her family’s homeland, Italy, is one of the only ways to find herself.

Our main character in this novel is Jess, who, in her thirties, went through a divorce with a golden boy and now finds herself resenting the fact that she’s living with her parents. She lives in Lake Como, New Jersey, and is looking at apartments in Hoboken, much to the horror of her Boomer Italian-American parents.

Jess is someone who could be considered overlooked in her life. She’s someone who always put her head down to do what was expected of her, even if it meant not going to college, when she wanted to, and cooking all of the family meals when everyone gathers around for Sunday dinners.

The only person she thinks who really believed in her was her uncle Louie, who owned the family marble business. In it, he imported marbles from Italy and provided them for homes, and Jess worked with him all the way up until the end.

It’s at a family dinner when something major happens—and it could be considered a tragedy. It’s also the beginning of the end for Jess, who realizes that there’s an entire life in front of her and she’s kind of wasted it so far not doing what she wants.

And so Jess ventures off to Italy alone in search for the truth around the narrative of her life. When the tragedy happens in the family it exposes some ugly secrets, meaning that her family and she have to reconcile with their past and present, but for now, Jess wants to find out who is beyond the labels being put on her throughout the years.

That said, this is a journey throughout Italy, even if it means seeing the real Lake Como after all of these years! It’s a bit of an Eat, Pray, Love kind of vibe at times, especially when Jess finds out more about her comfort levels and tests the waters romantically.

Overall Thoughts

I honestly had a tough time getting through this novel. It’s not something I would often pick up on my own, but I gave it a chance when I read the synopsis. Even though I was listening to it and didn’t have to physically read, I just simply could not connect with Jess and her journey.

I do enjoy a travel narrative, but this one wasn’t written in a way where I felt like it was productive. I could see some readers really seeing themselves in Jess and her situation, and I feel like the Italian-American dynamics were written in a way that felt real and authentic.

That said, I didn’t enjoy this book in a way that made me want to reread it or purchase a physical copy. I could see someone else really enjoying this, though, so don’t let this review deter you in the long run.

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