Love, Loss, and Redemption in the Italian Countryside

by Elizabeth Young

April 10, 2023

The opening pages of The Wisdom of the Olive Tree, Stewart’s debut novel, pour out grief. We meet Beth, the protagonist, in the immediate aftermath of the death of her only child and the unraveling of her marriage. During her downward spiral, Beth receives a phone call from her former fiancé, Porter, after thirty years of silence, and allows him to convince her to visit him in Italy. Where London and Beth's husband, Crawford, are cold and aloof, Porter and Italy are warm and welcoming. It quickly becomes evident, though, that Beth is never running to or from a man, but from and to herself.

Beth's character unfolds in vignettes from the past as Wisdom provides glimpses of her difficult childhood in upstate New York, her college days at UNC, and graduate school at American University in Washington, D.C. It is while she is in graduate school that Beth meets Crawford and becomes part of a tight quartet with his best friends, Hugh, and Mac. Beth and Porter's college relationship breaks up, for reasons Beth will not understand until several decades later, and Beth gets together with Crawford, more through gravity and proximity than chemistry, as they establish their careers in Washington.

Throughout Wisdom, David, Beth’s uncle and an Episcopal priest, serves as both a spiritual and situational guide on relationships and faith for her. Through David, Stewart demonstrates her deep theological knowledge. She never proselytizes, however, and the book is not a "spiritual" tome about how faith solves everything. Rather, it is an attempt to make sense of the bad things that upend our lives -- "the Chaos," as David calls it -- and explore how we find meaning despite the senseless and unjust events that shake our faith in God, in other people, and in the idea that there is a purpose and meaning in each of our lives.

As we get to know Beth, Stewart masterfully sets her scenes, especially the ones in Italy, in a way that evidences an intimate knowledge of the areas she writes about. She weaves historical and cultural observations into the text with skill, leaving the reader feeling that they, too, have visited the various landscapes she covers.

Seem too serious and staid? Don’t worry. Stewart’s clean, straight forward writing includes self-effacing humor that will make you chuckle and current day references to cultural touchstones like the Beastie Boys that keep things fresh. Marco, a historian who accompanies Beth through much of Tuscany and Umbria, is laugh out loud funny, both in his interpretation of the English language and his blunt, forward commentary.

While Beth experiences deep sadness, regret and loss, The Wisdom of the Olive Tree is not a downer. In fact, from the early pages, you’re cheering Beth from the sidelines to find the happiness for which she’s destined. Beth's resilience and her conviction that peace is possible, despite the circuitous route needed to find it, is a constant.

As they say, life is lived in the journey, and Beth is on one worth following.