The Apprentice Lover

By Jay Parini

Subjects: Brothers, Death, Literature, Fiction, general, Eccentrics and eccentricities, Private secretaries, Italy, fiction, New York Times reviewed, Fiction, Americans, Authors, Young men

Description: When Alex Massolini's brother is killed in Vietnam, he drops out of Columbia University and leaves his conservative family behind for Capri to become secretary to Rupert Grant, a famous British novelist and poet who dominates the island like a latter -- day Prospero. Alex soon finds himself ensnared in a web of love affairs, friendships, and rivalries within the eccentric community that inhabits the idyllic beauty of the isolated Italian island.The Apprentice Lover traces a young American's enchantment and disenchantment -- with his American past, his new European mentor, and the various inhabitants on an island famous for its characters.