Underlying Notes, the debut album from Eva Pasco follows Carla Matteo as she tries to cope with all life has handed her. Carla is now middle-aged and struggling to find her path in life, whether that be following her ambitions on becoming a teacher, or giving up her career to work alongside her husband Joe at his waste management company. She is also dealing with troubles from her past- her father’s mysterious death and her never ending fantasies about another man- who happens to be her fiercely faithful husband’s friend. With all her troubles, a new neighbor added to the mix only adds more drama, after she realizes her husband is having an affair and plots her revenge. One of the only things to keep Carla calm are her perfumes- spending hours online rating and reviewing different scents with other perfume lovers.
I unfortunately cannot say that I thoroughly enjoyed Underlying Notes. There was too much jumping around in the plot for me to be able to keep up, and the style of writing was bit too poetic prose for my liking. I didn’t get a real sense of understanding with the supporting characters and how they all fit into the story, though I can say that I understood the heroine and why she was dealing with the difficulties in her life. Another aspect that I didn’t like was that the title, Underlying Notes, was worked into every chapter seemingly multiple times, which seemed slightly overbearing. All of that made me want to stop reading more than once throughout the novel, but I am glad I pushed on and kept reading, because there was a nice ending to it all. I’m not exactly sure who I would recommend this book too, but if you are looking for a different style of writing, I would say check it out and see what you think!
