Marcus of Umbria: What an Italian Dog Taught an American Girl about Love

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Marcus of Umbria: What an Italian Dog Taught an American Girl about Love

3.23 of 5 stars 3.23 · rating details · 212 ratings · 51 reviews

Tired of laboring in city cubicles, Justine van der Leun sublets her studio apartment, leaves her magazine job, and moves to Collelungo, Italy, population: 200. There, in the ancient city center of a historic Umbrian village, she sets up house with the handsome local gardener she met on vacation only weeks earlier. This impulsive decision launches an eye-opening series of

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Hardcover, 218 pages

Published June 8th 2010 by Rodale Books

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Aug 21, 2010 LindyLouMac rated it 3 of 5 stars

I felt the title and the blurb were somewhat misleading as I was expecting more about Justine's relationship with the dog a female called Marcus, yes really and less about Italian culture. In fact I was unsure if I was even going to like the book as I am not a doggy person and would have been happier had it been publicised as yet another Life in Italy story. As really that is what it is, dressed up as a doggy tale to maybe attract a different readership, no idea why though. It was no surprise t...more

I felt the title and the blurb were somewhat misleading as I was expecting more about Justine's relationship with the dog a female called Marcus, yes really and less about Italian culture. In fact I was unsure if I was even going to like the book as I am not a doggy person and would have been happier had it been publicised as yet another Life in Italy story. As really that is what it is, dressed up as a doggy tale to maybe attract a different readership, no idea why though. It was no surprise to me therefore to read a review where the reader was disappointed as there was too much culture and not enough about Justine's relationship with Marcus.

Despite not agreeing personally with the way the book has been marketed I did enjoy it especially as there was an awful lot I was able to empathise with as an expat in Italy myself.

Justine whilst on holiday in Italy starts a relationship with a local man, Emanuele, and barely knowing him decides to give up the New York lifestyle that she is already disillusioned with to live with him in Collelungo. His family the Crucianis accept her as one of the family, despite the fact that due to the culture shock she is experiencing she finds it very difficult and never truly feels she belongs. I don't think Emanuele ever really felt she did either, when you read that he had a key ring engraved with words from a Bob Dylan song as a gift for her. 'Justine, I love you but you're strange'

The relationship with Marcus comes about because one of the things that Justine found hard to cope with was the rural Italians behaviour towards their dogs. It is not usually that the dogs are treated cruelly it is just that they are not seen as pets, but as animals that have to earn their keep and certainly would not not allowed indoors. It has been like this for generations and is not something that Justine was likely to be able to change overnight.

Unable to adapt to Italian rural life and realising that she and Emanule, as much as they had been good friends to each other, it was never going to be a lifetime commitment. With the relationship as good as over she makes plans to return to the USA along with Marcus. What a culture shock for her, the dog I mean, that must have been!

Can I recommend this well it really depends what you are expecting. If you are hoping that her relationship with Marcus will be thoroughly explored and that you might actually learn something from the lessons she learnt, you will I think be disappointed. I never did discover what that lesson was. That is No then but Yes if you want to read a story that despite, the title is focused on Justine's I think realistic portrayal of life in rural Umbria.

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Jun 22, 2010 Gail Cooke rated it 5 of 5 stars

Had a bad day at the office? Justine van der Leun had more than a few plus seven years of living in New York City, and she wanted a change. When an acquaintance invited her to spend a month in his village, Collelungo, Italy, she couldn't pack fast enough. Thus began a life changing adventure for her and a warm, hilarious, head-on honest memoir for us.

MARCUS OF UMBRIA will enchant from the first page. After meeting a handsome musician/gardener, Emanuele, during her first visit to Italy Justine...more

Had a bad day at the office? Justine van der Leun had more than a few plus seven years of living in New York City, and she wanted a change. When an acquaintance invited her to spend a month in his village, Collelungo, Italy, she couldn't pack fast enough. Thus began a life changing adventure for her and a warm, hilarious, head-on honest memoir for us.

MARCUS OF UMBRIA will enchant from the first page. After meeting a handsome musician/gardener, Emanuele, during her first visit to Italy Justine decides to move there permanently in hopes of finding “a great love.....a new place and a new way to live.” Now, Collelungo (population 200) was a new place for her but in actuality an ancient city in the heart of Umbria. The people were farmers, quite set in the ways of their predecessors and happy to follow them.

Emanuele's family, the Crucianis, took her in – albeit they found her odd. For her part, Justine attempted to adapt,, helping where she could, gamely following their habits, and attempting to learn the language. But she found that much of the fabric of life for the Collelungoese had been woven centuries ago and she could not change a stitch “This was a culture of women who took care of men from birth to death, and of men who feigned incapability until they actually became incapable.” (ie Justine once saw an aged woman carefully making her way across the piazza carrying a stack of starched and ironed shirts – after all, “she had been ironing her son's shirts for seventy-five years.”)

Justine found herself “unable or unwilling to do what society dictates an Umbrian woman should do – including incessantly cleaning up after a man, killing chickens with my bare hands, and cooking lasagna and wild boar.” However, in addition to finding that she and Emanuele were not meant for each other Justine did find the love of her life to date in a small pen attached to the horse barn – a badly neglected puppy whose ribs she could easily count. She immediately made him her own and named him Marcus. As it turned out he was a she and a purebred English pointer. Caring for Marcus in a place where dogs were treated as livestock and often died by the age of three. Nonetheless, she persisted much to the consternation of the Cruciani family.

Speaking of that family, the author has created unforgettably vivid verbal photographs. It is as if her words were a camera clearly imaging mother Serenella (who worked 14 hours a day and then came home to prepare a feast in 20 minutes); father Fabio with his ever present cigar who is usually found in a seated position, Emanuele's siblings and diverse relatives. Hopefully some day MARCUS OF UMBRIA will become a film as these people are too wonderful not to be brought to mind again on a wide screen.

Justine van der Leun has given us a memoir to savor, a sampling of the Old World vis-a-vis the new, a candid remembrance enriched with life lessons, laughter, and the ever changing faces of love.

Gail Cooke(less)

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Sep 06, 2011 loretta rated it 2 of 5 stars

I was anxious to read this memoir because I'm a dog lover, I've been to Italy and I love all thing Italian. when Justine began her book with her need to 'find a man' in Italy, I thought it would be another 'chick lit' silly book but I stayed with it and am glad I did if only to be assured that Marcus, the dog, does make it back to America with Justine. Her descriptions of her lover's family are truly hilarious! She really captured the character of the everyday, unsophisticated Italian. What was...more

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Jul 29, 2011 Carla rated it 5 of 5 stars

I picked up this book because Ms. van der Leun graduated from the school where I teach (I remembered her and had also read some of her pieces in O Magazine) and I almost returned it to the library because my reasons for reading it were not pure. I am glad I read on because I really enjoyed this book. First, Ms. van der Leun is talented and engaging writer. Her story has a refreshing perspective. Critics on Goodreads said that she was self-absorbed and unlikeable as a character but what the heck!...more

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Apr 19, 2012 Rebecca rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: chicklit, travel, dog

I had such medium hopes for this book! An American women is living in Italy and she adopts a dog! LOVE IT! Yeah, it ends up that the dog isn't in the story all that much. It's mainly about her relationship with some Italian Dude and his crazy family. They are in a small town in the south of Italy. Craziness ensues. The reason she takes the dog is because for the most part in that area, dogs are left to fend for themselves and aren't given the same love they are in America and she is not used to...more

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Jul 02, 2010 Audra (Unabridged Chick) rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: fans of Under the Tuscan Sun

Shelves: first-reads, confessional, biography-and-memoir, sense-of-place, did-not-finish

Shamefully, I've had to quit trying to read this book as I've had it for about four months and can't seem to break 100 pages. I just can't stand our heroine! The book has a chick lit feel to it -- which might work for some but is a turn off for me. The 'struggles' of Americans living in bucolic foreign lands aggravate rather than entrance me, and this book was no exception.

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Jul 15, 2010 Bella rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2010

Having just adopted a puppy of my own, I was extremely interested to read this memoir about a woman who travels to rural Italy in search of adventure, hoping for a love affair, and who ends up finding a wonderful dog.

I really wanted to like this book, and I did enjoy parts of it, but overall, I found that the only character I even remotely liked was Marcus, the dog. Justine van der Leun paints an ugly picture of the residents of the pastoral Umbrian town in which she finds herself. At best she m...more

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Aug 31, 2010 Michelle rated it 4 of 5 stars

Marcus of Umbria: What an Italian Dog Taught an American Girl About Love by Justine van der Leun is about a young American woman who moves to a small, rural village in Italy on a whim and ends up falling in love with a dog.

Does it surprise you that I really, really enjoyed this book?

After becoming smitten with a local Italian ragazzo on vacation, the author packs up her New York City life and transplants herself to Collelungo in Umbria, the Green Heart of Italy. She immediately becomes part of t...more Marcus of Umbria: What an Italian Dog Taught an American Girl About Love by Justine van der Leun is about a young American woman who moves to a small, rural village in Italy on a whim and ends up falling in love with a dog.

Does it surprise you that I really, really enjoyed this book?

After becoming smitten with a local Italian ragazzo on vacation, the author packs up her New York City life and transplants herself to Collelungo in Umbria, the Green Heart of Italy. She immediately becomes part of the family, and she is expected to contribute as such. I think it’s safe to say this is her first of many culture shocks detailed throughout the book.

As we learn more about Justine’s new surroundings and the people playing prominent roles in her daily life, we also get to know the author through how she handles new, challenging situations. The picture isn’t always pretty, but it certainly seems honest. Being able to trust the author of a memoir is always a huge plus.

Justine’s time in the village wasn’t full of leisurely days sipping wine under the Umbrian sun and raucous family gatherings by night, and she pulls no punches on this anti-Under the Tuscan Sun lifestyle she adopts. Her fidanzato isn’t the most attentive (although he seems like a good enough guy), his brother has a cruel streak to say the least, and common methods of keeping and training animals are heart-wrenching to animal lovers.

Justine manages to present these tidbits and others in a very matter-of-fact way though, without judgment. It is what it is, if you will, and in many instances, it’s been that way for centuries in Collelungo (and other small towns throughout Italy). I can’t speak for what the people of Collelungo might think about Justine’s perceptions as related in the book, but from my perspective in what seems to be a similar village, they rang fairly accurate.

But through all the ups and downs of life in Collelungo, Justine’s growing love for Marcus, an English pointer she rescues, keeps her grounded — in fact, literally, as she is reluctant to leave town even after her love affair has soured, not knowing what will happen to her beloved pooch. Indeed, the only issue I had with the book is that I would have liked more Marcus!

Witty, descriptive, well-crafted, and just plain entertaining, this book gets four and a half espresso cups out of five; more Marcus would’ve had my cup runneth-ing over. Marcus of Umbria is more about Justine’s year living in rural Italy than simply a girl meets dog tale, but what it does, it does well — so I highly recommend it.(less)

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Aug 03, 2010 Tenna rated it 5 of 5 stars

My very favorite line from this book (as she is describing adopting her dog): "I had willfully shifted another being's course, and that meant that I was technically morally bounded to ensure her well-being for a lifetime". LOVE!

When Jen Lancaster listed this book on her summer reading this and assured everyone that no animals were hurt, I immediately jumped on it. I definitely related to Justine...adopting a dog when life wasn't all that great and feeling that that dog "rescued" me in not such a...more

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Oct 16, 2012 Reno rated it 1 of 5 stars

Original posted 1 October 2010 on my blog.

***

It's been a long time since I've finished a book that left me feeling so frustrated and unsatisfied. Usually I can tell within the first 20 pages or so whether I'm going to enjoy a book or not, but I decided to stick it out with this one. Forgive me now while I rant about the shortcomings of this book.

This book was dreary, dull, negative. The author had nothing positive to say about her travels. The entire memoir consists of her complaining about ever...more Original posted 1 October 2010 on my blog.

***

It's been a long time since I've finished a book that left me feeling so frustrated and unsatisfied. Usually I can tell within the first 20 pages or so whether I'm going to enjoy a book or not, but I decided to stick it out with this one. Forgive me now while I rant about the shortcomings of this book.

This book was dreary, dull, negative. The author had nothing positive to say about her travels. The entire memoir consists of her complaining about everything she encounters within the culture she chose to place herself in. She finds it appalling that people treat dogs as work animals and not as companions. I was thoroughly disgusted at some of the comments she made. There was one statement (on page 136) that made me lose whatever hope I had that the author was going to redeem herself. While complaining about how the locals never throw food out, the author says:

I'd seen her use brown bananas to bake a fluffy breakfast loaf.

Well, yeah, what the hell do you think breakfast loaf is made with? (Maybe that seems a little like overreacting, but after 136 pages of the author's petty whining I couldn't take it any more). Granted, some of the things that bother her are valid, but for the most it's just her bitching about how she hates life in the Italian country. And yet she chooses to live there for months with a man she admits she's not in love with.

That's the other thing that was frustrating. The book is advertised as 'What an Italian dog taught an American girl about love', but the dog is mentioned on maybe 40 pages (and that sounds a bit generous). Barely at all. I expected the entire book to be about the author and her loving adventures with her dog but frankly, the dog could have been removed from the book and it would have been the same. Every now and then, the author mentions that she loves her dog and not her boyfriend, but you never see that or feel it. It's like she just threw the dog in there so she could make a nice sounding book about it.

You never feel like you're getting the whole story. You don't feel sorry for her and her boyfriend (a page or two says 'Yeah, we eventually realized it wasn't going to work out but I stuck around anyhow), you don't feel the love for the dog. When I finished this book, I was immensely to relieved to not have to read any more of the author's shallow and selfish opinions.

...

Right, so that all sounds a little a harsh. As annoyed with the author as I was, I still managed to finish the book. It was not at all enjoyable, but I managed. I think I would feel a lot better about the whole thing if it wasn't marketed as dog love story. Perhaps a better subtitle would be 'Why I Hate Country Hicks of Italy' (but I guess that wouldn't sell as well...).(less)

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May 23, 2013 Linda rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: book-club-choice

This was my book club's choice for May. I thought it was ok, but couldn't decide if it was a memoir, or a pet ownership guide, or a tale of a bad relationship, or the story of a judgmental person on an international excursion. It was a bit of a mishmash, and I didn't particularly care for the narrator. I've read much worse, though, and it held my attention. It was an interesting view of real Italy through young, privileged eyes.

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May 31, 2010 Simon rated it 4 of 5 stars

This was the first book that I won from Goodreads and I really enjoyed it. The author writes of a girl who leaves her known life in New York for an unknown world in Italy, searching for true love. She learns about the effects of different cultures on each other and she learns to adapt. After falling in love with an Italian farmer, she really falls in love with a dog that she rescues from the family of her lover - realizing that she is more connected with the dog who depends on her than with the...more

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Oct 16, 2010 Amy rated it 2 of 5 stars

I don't know how I could be so disappointed in a book I couldn't put down. Very little Marcus the dog, plenty of rural characters-shading-into-caricatures, and a narrator I was alternately charmed by and infuriated with. Van der Leun sure can write, though; I'll give her another chance if I see more by her in the future.

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Feb 09, 2011 Elie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

Van der Leun's prose is open-hearted and observant, taking in the characters around her. She chronicles the idiosyncrasies of Italian culture and her place within it with clarity and love. The passages about animals and animal treatment resonate deeply and remain strong, even after the book is finished.

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Feb 15, 2013 Deon Stonehouse rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: animal-characters-in-story, books-set-in-italy, travel-essay, non-fiction-biography-memoir

Marcus of Umbria by Justine Vander Leun is a memoir about moving to beautiful Italy. Justine abandons New York for a village in Umbria and an Italian with dark, soulful eyes. Prickly, independent, and used to her own company, Justine finds fitting into life in a small Umbrian village and a boisterous Italian family a challenge. She realizes she may have been too hasty; Emmanuele is not going to be her life's companion. As she is realizing her error, fate smiles on Justine. She meets the Italian...more

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Aug 21, 2010 Roberta rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: travel-adventure

I was hoping for a better feel of Umbria and didn't get one. Instead, the book is the highly self centered musings of an unlikeable young woman. The Italians call her egoiste and she fits the word. And her projection on to the unfortunate dog is pathetic. Skimmed it quickly.

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Apr 04, 2013 Meagan rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: memoir, nonfiction, travel, tbr-challenge

This would actually be a 3.5 star book, if half stars were possible. (Half stars are becoming the bane of my existence.)

The best way I can think to describe this book is as an Eat, Pray, Love for dog lovers. Several of the reviews I see here on GoodReads complain that they expected more focus on Marcus, the dog. She may not be the focus of the story, but make no mistake - she is the heart of the story. So with this book, you get a glimpse of the Italy that tourists don't get to see. The good, th...more

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Aug 08, 2010 Amy rated it 4 of 5 stars

I don't often read memoirs, but this one caught my eye and was much better than I expected. Could have used more about the dog, though. On the other hand, can you really have enough of sexy Italian gardeners?

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Sep 10, 2010 faeriecrone rated it 3 of 5 stars

This is rather like "Eat, Pray, Love" but instead it is, "Relationship with a Man, Relationship with a Dog, Relationship with a Horse". I found ti interesting, especially the bits about Italy.

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Apr 24, 2013 Cathy Brown rated it 5 of 5 stars

What a delightful book! It was like a vacation between two covers. I loved her rich description of Italy, the family and Marcus.
While reading this on the train, I was laughing out loud.

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Sep 14, 2010 Lynn rated it 4 of 5 stars

Enjoyable read though sometimes difficult to read...due to the harsh treatment of animals- dogs and horses- in Collenlungo, the historic Umbrian village where the author pens her memoir. Lucky Marcus, lucky author for finding each other.

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Aug 24, 2010 Heather rated it 4 of 5 stars

Fun! Makes me want to go to Italy...not that it would take me much to want to go. I liked looking her up online after reading her book and seeing pictures of a lot of what she was writing about.

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Dec 30, 2011 Lori Symmonds rated it 4 of 5 stars

Sweet, funny book about a girl, a failed Italian human romance, and a successful Italian canine romance with a wonderful little pointer named Marcus.

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Nov 04, 2011 Lorraine rated it 3 of 5 stars

I fun read. I like books that allow me to travel without leaving my house or that bring me back to places I have visited

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Sep 04, 2011 Lia rated it 5 of 5 stars

Smart, funny, insightful. This is not a travel book or a rose colored romance. It will ring true if you have been there.

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Sep 27, 2010 Maria rated it 4 of 5 stars

Thought this was an enjoyable book. Could relate to story's description of the Italian family.

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Jul 23, 2012 Sara rated it 5 of 5 stars

I loved, loved, loved this book. Maybe it was because I was reading it this summer a mere 15 miles away from our little apartment here in Umbria, but definitely because she describes the people and life here so perfectly that I felt like I was reading about some of our own new Umbrian friends. It is not 'chick lit' as some people bill it to be - it is a very well-written memoir that left me wanting more. I guess I'll just have to read it again! (I also want to head over to the Collelungo area an...more

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Jul 07, 2010 Samantha Unverferth rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites, biographies

This book is heart-wrenching. It made me want to hold my dog and never let her go. A wonderful memoir for those who value animals.

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May 10, 2011 Courtney rated it 4 of 5 stars

A fine writing exploring the depths of the female mid-life crisis. As it turns out all we need is love, even it's in the form of owner-pet.

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Jul 18, 2010 Michelle rated it 3 of 5 stars

Cute book about girl meets dog while in Italy.

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