From the Foot of the Mountain

Lisa Arsenault is a high-school English teacher who is involved in
several ministry campaigns to increase literacy.

From the Foot of the Mountain is a fictional love story set in Pompeii
in the first century. The story is narrated by the wife of a Roman
producer of plays. Her act of adultery, contemplated throughout the
novel, forms the dénouement (along with the eruption of Mount
Vesuvius).

The book is well researched: it contains a wealth of details concerning
first-century Roman art and architecture, social structure, religious
cults and practices, and so on, as well as many quotations from the
works of contemporary philosophers and playwrights. A believable
portrait of the daily life of an upper-class Roman matron in the
provinces is presented.

However, with the possible exception of the narrator, the characters
have a one-dimensional, cardboard quality that is not mitigated by the
stilted, ponderous conversational style the author assigns them.

Believing in the adulterous love affair is also somewhat difficult. The
narrator’s feelings for her lover seem more maternal than passionate,
and her lover’s attitude is one of reluctant acquiescence.