The Five-Forty-Five to Cannes

by: Tess Uriza Holthe

Published by: Crown Publishers

Reviewed by Laura Langer

Tess Uriza’s Holthe’s novel, The Five-Forty-Five to Cannes, weaves together a number of stories centering around the city of Cannes and the French Riviera.

In the opening chapter, Chazz Jorgenson is traveling to Cannes on a whim, fleeing his wife and all the complications of his life. He has his medications, and when he is taken up by two brothers who are set upon relieving him of as much of his money and valuables as possible, he is both suspicious and too delusional to shake them off. As he exits the five-forty-five train in Cannes he sets out at a run, fleeing them, compelled by his fear and drug-fueled anxiety. He runs into traffic and is killed by a passing taxi, We pick up the story with another character who has witnessed the event.

The gypsy brothers are indeed criminals—pickpockets of long standing, with a third brother who is trying to shake off their life and start new. They thread their way through all of the chapters of this book—whether Holthe is writing of three lace-making widows, the sorrowing mother of a son who has deserted her for a woman she doesn’t like, the released criminal who is trying to make a new life without the complications of relationships, or the young boy who is abandoned in a doorway and picks out a new grandfather.

This much complication and interweaving of stories takes a great deal of skill. This collection never quite achieves the satisfying level of integration that the premise should offer to a reader. Some of the characters are fascinating portraits of a time, a place, a culture—like the three widows of Alberto Moretti. Others are a little too much like a Hollywood movie of the poor little waitress who marries money and love. Still, the setting and the glimpses of everyday life of people who are not in Cannes for the film festival is charming and attractive.

Armchair Interviews says: If you’re looking for an engaging read with plenty of action and lots of scenery, The Five-Forty-Five to Cannes is for you.

Author’s Web site: http://www.TessUrizaHolthe.com