The majority of this book is quite interesting: the story of a turn of the century Italian immigrant woman who comes to New York City after tragedy befalls her and her husband. The characters are interesting, both her Italian hometown and NYC are richly described. 
 However, this book has an aggressively obnoxious framing device set 50-60 years after the events of the novel that really undermines the quality of the narrative. These contemporary interludes are short but they are incredibly frustrating. They spoil the momentum and manage to drain a lot of the narrative tension out of the last third of the book. If they had been excised this would have been a far better book. As it is, I can't fathom why they were included.