I received this book for free from in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Imperfect Pairings
on May 15, 2013 and has 416 pages.
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A novel about expectations and relationships, and culture clashes. Yes, I consider this a romance, but more of a love affair about wine.
In 2014, Imperfect Pairings was nominated for the Indie Excellence Awards. In 2013, it won Chick Lit – IndieReader Discovery Awards, the Chick Lit/Women’s Lit – USA Best Book Awards, and the Global Fiction – ReaderViews Reader’s Choice Awards; it was given an honorable mention in the General Fiction – Writer’s Digest Book Awards in 2013; and, it was a finalist for the IndieReader Discovery Award for Chick Lit.
My Take
This story explores Imperfect Pairings on so many levels. It’s almost exhausting to consider. Townsend broke open old wounds, made me re-examine past relationships, wondered about wine, and checked for flights to Roma.
I confess that I was torn between a “3” and a “4”. The “4” for Townsend’s diving into the negatives of both cultures, for dissecting Jamie’s relationship with her family. The “3” for her heavyhanded and undeveloped approach to it.
I will confess that both her primary characters drove me nuts — Jack was standoffish and cold until food or football came up while Jamie was an uptight workaholic insisting on the superiority of American business practices. After spending some ten years in the States, he either never absorbed how Americans were or never noticed; he certainly couldn’t be bothered to try and explain the differences in American and Italian culture to her. Although, to be fair, I have to wonder if Jamie would have listened to anything he said if it didn’t agree with what she expected.
Then there’s that superior attitude from Jack about all things Italian. Sure, I get that he’s proud of his Italian heritage and culture. And he should be. That doesn’t mean he has to be the ugly Italian. I ran into that problem with my in-laws. They looked down on everything American and thought everything British was too fabulous for words. Gimme a break. Every culture has great and awful aspects to it. There is no excuse for that blanket of superiority. From anyone.
It should appeal to readers who don’t like it when the protagonists fall instantly in love. It slowly becomes obvious to the reader that she’s in love, but she’s battling it every step of the way. She certainly fought being married. What was with her denying it all the time? I didn’t understand that at all. As for Jack/Giovanni, once in a while he says something that makes you think he loves her, but there’s nothing to support it in between. At one point he claims “I’m not going to marry you for my green card, Jamie” and in the next, he’s obsessing about the paperwork for it. I certainly don’t understand what he saw in her; I’d’a dumped her after a few months! She was so caught up in her life, her expectations as well as being an ugly American that she couldn’t see the trees for the forest. The blow-up at the end from Giovanni is not unexpected, but it is late. All we ever get is the cold shoulder until this.
What is it with Americans who can’t go with the flow? Those who go to a foreign country and wonder why it’s not like America? What’s the point of ever leaving the States if you don’t want to explore another culture? One of my favorite things to do when I traveled was to eat the breakfast that was typical for the country. We get exposed to dinner here in America, but no one ever serves up a Thai or Norwegian breakfast.
I never did understand why Jamie went to Italy — she does spend a lot of time knuckling under to her own expectations, however stupid they may have been. Why wouldn’t she do some research ahead of time to get a feel for Italy? Why did it take years before she realized she should learn Italian? So Jack’s family does things differently? So, what? Sit back and observe how they eat the various dishes, imitate them. What’s so hard about this? So they drink thimbles of coffee. Drink a lotta thimbles…or ask for a large cup. Jesus, she acts like a petulant child.
Excuse me! After all this time, and Jamie doesn’t get that harvest time is important??? WTF?? How insular is this woman? Jack has been telling her that Giorgio constantly downplays how successful his pharmacy is, so why does she think that Jack’s been saying the opposite all this time? The death that Jack has told her he doesn’t want to deal with until after the wedding. The one she keeps nagging on and on about at the wedding. Does she listen to anyone? Is anyone paying attention to continuity?
I think Townsend has a great novel that needs work. The character interactions between Jamie and Jack just don’t ring true. He never calls her on her denials. He never explains anything until push comes to shoving him over the edge of a cliff, metaphorically speaking. She’s so defensive of her job and independence — it’s like these two people are running on completely separate tracks with the occasional crossover. We get better interaction between family members, and I have to wonder if that’s simply because Townsend went nuts with the Italian “temperament” and felt it was okay, since it was Italians and they didn’t have an investment of any sort in Jamie. There’s a great scene with Jamie’s mom that I kept waiting for Townsend to take somewhere, and it just fizzles.
I love this…
“In Italy we work so that we can pursue our passions.
Where I think Townsend did well was in portraying the culture and the people. Their warmth and insecurities, their passions and fears. The architecture and landscape. Their sense of family — and it’s that closeness that triggered Jamie’s self-examination. Family was too incredibly important to each of them whereas Jamie’s family left almost as soon as she was born. Their obsession with food, LOL. It so reminded me of my father-in-law who was an amazing foodie! I still dream about his gnocchi al pesto. I adored the sections about the wine, about Luca’s passion for greatness.
I love this one too…
“the night before Tiberio’s wedding” and he’d rather pursue fresh cornettos than strippers or shots.
I’m rather irritated about the 500,000 loose thread. Then there’s all the teasing about being around her mother is a desperate move of some sort. It’s never clear. Nor is that paragraph clear about why his father left. And what’s the deal with Puglia? Why do so few people have last names? This is one of my personal prejudices, but if you are passionate enough to write a book, I shouldn’t think it would be that big a deal to figure out last names for your characters. The weird thing is that authors usually at least manage a last name for their main characters…
I don’t know if it was my Kindle or the formatting of this book, and I can’t imagine it was the formatting, but I almost stopped reading because it kept jumping all over the damned place. Half the time, when I tried to do a search on a word or phrase that I knew was in the text to get back to where I had been, nothing. It didn’t believe the word existed. Until I pressed the bloody “Next Page” button a million times to get back!
In spite of my whining, I do recommend this book for its passion and Townsend’s bringing us into the family with their warts, their history, their real-ness.
Psst, I hate the ending for Imperfect Pairings, AND it’s perfect.
The Story
It’s Luca’s wedding to Antonia that brings about Jack and Jamie’s trip to Italy. Jack and Jamie have only been dating a few months, but Jack takes her up on her comment. A challenge she never expected him to take seriously.
It’s the start of Jamie’s questions. Questions about her family, her expectations, what she wants out of life.
For Jack, it becomes a return to his roots.
The Characters
Jamie __ handles financial integration when companies merge, and she’s very good at it. It should be since her work is her family and her friends. “She’s descended from generations of career women” with all their expectations. Jill is her equally workaholic sister who recently gave birth to twins. Her husband Philip is just as hard a worker.
Jack, the Chosen One, has been “passing” in America as an American. In truth he’s Giovanni, an Italian taking advantage of the American educational system to achieve degrees from MIT and Cornell, to fulfill a promise to his father, Giorgio, who took off for Napoli. I think Nonno Carlo is Giorgio’s father. La Mamma is Jack’s stereotypical Italian mother and Giacomo’s daughter.
Zio Silvio is Giorgio’s brother while Zia Renata is their sister. Lucrezia is an adopted sister. Gabriella is Silvio’s girlfriend. Maria is Silvio’s daughter, another cousin getting married.
The rest of Jack’s family includes:
Bisnonno, Jack’s great-grandfather, bought Villa Ruffoli for its vines. Peter was the third of four sons and inherited his father’s passion for wine, a passion his grandson, Luca, inherits as well. Nonno Giacomo, and the other two brothers ran the rest of the family businesses, until they lost it.
Marco is married to Zia Maddalena who is La Mamma‘s sister and definitely Frederico’s daughter. Simona is their daughter, the wanna-be artist. Gabir is a gorgeous guy Simona meets in Paris; Jack likes him because he involved with the FIFA, the International Football Federation. “Michele is the son of her father’s business partner.”
Luca is Jack’s cousin, and he’s passionate about the vines on the Ruffoli land. Zia Claudia is Luca’s mother; Dino was his philosophy professor father. Caterina is Luca’s younger sister.
Silvestro is the Roman cousin. Zio Lorenzo‘s son. Lorenzo is also Jack’s godfather. Principessa Isabella Savelli is only the latest woman Silvestro is panting after.
Jamie’s work group includes:
Donald is the Managing Partner of her group; Chris is the CEO of the company; and, Charles is the lecherous man in charge in Korea.
The rival Crespi are a neighboring family who also produces wine. Sal is the top Italian wine merchant in New York City. Tiberio is a friend of Jack’s and helps their fledgling wine business by insisting on serving Ruffoli wine at his wedding reception. Peter Thompson is a visitor to the vineyard. Hans Friedrich is a wealthy collector who may be interested in the vintage Barolo. And may save the vineyard. Hmmm, that makes four whole last names in this story…
Zia is an aunt while Zio is uncle; I believe that Nonno is grandfather.
The Cover and Title
The background for the cover is an overview of the land and its vineyards with close-up of a pair of hands clinking wine glasses — you can’t miss that this is a tale of wine.
The title is perfect. One of the joys and challenges of choosing wine and food is finding the perfect combination that will bring out the best in both. For Luca, it’s using only the best of the harvest to create the Ruffoli wines. For the characters within Imperfect Pairings, it’s a story that abounds with the many ways people cope with each other whether in love, friendship, business, or family.
