REVIEWS: 'Dolce Vita Confidential,' by Shawn Levy, and 'Ashes of Fiery Weather,' by Kathleen Donohoe

By Shawn Levy. (W.W. Norton, 447 pages, $27.95.)

"Dolce Vita Confidential" explores the rebirth of Rome after World War II, crediting the emerging film and fashion industries and, of course, U.S. aid in the form of the Marshall Plan.

Author Shawn Levy has a conversational style, bursting with gossip and spot analysis of a crush of celebrities, and it makes this lengthy book go quickly. Photos — including one of a naughty teenage Sophia Loren — provide convincing evidence of the hedonism portrayed in films, most notably "La Dolce Vita" by director Federico Fellini.

"Director Federico Fellini was the first important artist to appreciate every aspect of the hyperactive, gorgeous, superficial world that sprung up in Rome at that time," Levy writes. "That also meant, almost inevitably, that he was among the first to condemn it all."

In "La Dolce Vita," Fellini's portrait of excess created a sensation and drew thousands into the streets, some to protest and some to see the film.

Film buffs will appreciate this book, as would anyone interested in the origins of the paparazzi and the craft and culture of postwar Italy.

BECKY WELTER

It's difficult to believe that this is Kathleen Donohoe's debut novel. For starters, it is ambitious and then some, cradling the stories of seven women across generations of an Irish firefighting family, wrapped in all the pride and terror that go with that work.

The Keegan-O'Reilly clan is based on Donohoe's own family, and that familiarity may be what keeps the story so grounded in the dailiness of life's struggles. Wartime leaves its mark on courtships and psyches, with hasty nuptials and lingering traumas. Ireland shapes faith and the family tradition of firefighting. The tragedy of Sept. 11, 2001, transforms family members in ways that are anticipated, but are also unexpectedly revelatory.

Thankfully, the book comes with a family tree and dated chapters — helpful for the expanse of time and generations tackled here. But "Ashes of Fiery Weather" is worth every moment spent double-checking kin or thumbing back to dates. It's as if Donohoe knows she's giving us a lot to digest, but not willing to compromise how she wants this story to unfold. To try and summarize the plot is to minimize its sweep. Suffice it to say that these women's lives will stick with you, as will the insights gained into the firefighters' tight community. I'll be waiting for Donohoe's second novel.

KIM ODE