Paul's Case

There is something ethereal about the dinner parties that first-time novelist Paul Gervais gives on the loggia of his six teenth-century Tuscan hunting lodge. Perhaps it is the deep red wine or extra-virgin olive oil that Gervais makes on his sixty-acre spread near Lucca. Perhaps it is the company of the local contessas and literati, who have spent the afternoon lounging by the author's pool. But there is little that is ethereal about Extraordinary People (HarperCollins), in which the Maine-born Gervais takes an expatriate's look at growing up in New England and eventually retreating to the hills of central Italy. The book is a lyrical odyssey filled with tales of an alcoholic mother and a gay brother. It is also a witty saga about transatlantic angst.

Once a painter of Minimalist works in California, the forty-five-year-old Gervais has for the past ten years called the glorious Villa Massei home. As one of the characters in his novel puts it, "I eat well in Italy; I get the news."

ALAN FRIEDMAN