Olivia focuses primarily on the women, Caroline and Olivia, with the men in their lives — Angelo, Leon, and Pablo — in supporting roles.

Caroline is bound to be a person in her own right, although she has not the strength, most of the time, to stand her ground. She feels her early life "rested on false assumptions" about both her parents and Angelo; she knows she is being mistreated by Angelo but confines herself for years to small food rebellions — keeping butter in the house, feeding risotto to Olivia. When she does get the strength to leave, she feels "disembodied." She recognizes that she misses not just her daughter but "myself." She finds a new, more independent self through her cooking classes and TV show, but feels acutely the need for "someone who was like a husband but like a father as well."

Leon seems the...