Excellent

A family is torn apart after the oldest daughter (Cookie) is killed in a terrorist bombing in Italy. The story is told by her father, Woody a professor at a Midwest college, and chronicles the good, the bad and the ugly of his life post Cookie's death. A few chapters are told from the middle daughter's point of view, spans about 10 years. GREAT read! :-)

One of the most moving books I've read this decade. Middle aged parents going through their own life crisis have to come to terms with their daughters greater crisis as she fights for her life after being a victim of a terrorist bomb which exploded in Italy where she was at the time.

Be prepared for tears.

Review written in 2000.

This is the second time I have read this book. It has probably been over ten years between readings and I think I enjoyed it more now than I did before. Like the book Shame, there is a much older man carrying on with a younger student. However, the narrator is torn about this. He is kind of lost after the death of his daughter and the book leads the reader through the emotional struggles, including numbness and cavalierness, that he goes through until he finally finds himself again. I appreciate that it is sprinkled with a few chapters from his daughters points of view so we can understand how they are affected. I read this ex route and in Copenhagen which helped me set an appropriate mood.

I enjoyed this book enormously. The view of a family fracturing in the aftermath of a sudden death and the way each person deals with it is fascinating.
The topics covered are so wide-ranging, from cooking to weaving, and make every part a learning experience. The constant references to classical literature are equally interesting.
The principal character seems too complete a person to be true, this is perhaps the most off-putting thing for me.
This is my third readthrough and each time the story seems new and revealing.

After reading Sixteen Pleasures, i decided to see what else this author had written. He again reveals his understanding the strength and resilience of the human spirit. Alan, a classics professor is convinced his life is over and has learned all of lifes lessons. His oldest daughter is killed in a terrorist bombing in Italy, his wife leaves him and his 2 remaining daughters move away. He attends the trial and returns to the scene. A compelling story...

Sad but good, about a family that rebuilds itself after the loss of a daughter in a bombing in Italy.

Quite a magnificent and affecting novel.

Love it, so far. Funny, poignant, well written, great sense of atmosphere.

I actually have not finished this book. Spoiler alert.....the guy is having a sexual relationship with a student (daughter of an old flame) while still grieving and constantly thinking about his own deceased eldest daughter. He willfully denies that this is harassment since she approached him. There is definitely a creepy factor, a narcissistic factor. The author writes beautifully and I enjoyed the references to classical literature. Maybe I will try another of his works.

Hellenga's prose ranks him high on the list of current writers, and I mostly enjoyed reading "The Fall of a Sparrow". My main reservation about the book is that for me it border's on a male version of chick-lit.

Good. Obviously written by a man. Ties to agree mythology, fascism, nuns, blues and folk music.