A Garden in Lucca: Finding Paradise in Tuscany

by Paul Gervais

Now available in paperback, this delightful memoir, written by critically acclaimed novelist Paul Gervais, recounts the challenges, elations, setbacks, and revelations that accompanied the process of making an acclaimed garden out of the sprawling, overgrown grounds of a Renaissance Tuscan hunting lodge.

Genres: Italy, Gardening, Nonfiction, Travel

309 pages, Paperback

First published March 15, 2000

Reviews

[Sally · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Garden in Lucca: Finding Paradise in Tuscany would probably not be interesting to people who aren't into gardening. It made me extremely jealous. The author and his partner bought an old mansion in Tuscany and transformed its overgrown gardens. My only complaint about the book is the lack of illustrations.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not a 5 star book.
What I missed were photos, drawings, etc. of Paul's Garden. Not the very meager sketches like now in the book.
Book for Gardenistas.
Lots of Latin names for plants.
Book for cosmopolitan people.
Lots of French phrases also.
All and all and OK and contemporary story.
Would love to go and visit all the gardens.

[Lucy Megronigle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I probably only found this interesting because I recently spent a week in Tuscany. If you are really into gardening you would probably love it. I got a little lost in all of the Latin names for different flowers, bushes, and trees. But the characters were interesting and funny, especially the Greek family who tried to purchase the villa.

[Darcee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love a good garden memoir.

[Tess · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel bad rating this so low because I am not a gardener and this is definitely a gardner's book. I found myself nodding off at all the mentions of the various plants and architectural ideas. And yet I did finish it because I was charmed by the stories of the house renovation, the food and wine, and life at this beautiful place in Tuscany.

If you are looking for a book like "Under the Tuscan Sun" this is not it. But if you are interested in serious gardening and garden architecture I suspect you will like it very much. And when you finish you can google the author's name and see his amazing handiwork in photographs. As it turns out, he today works as a garden designer.

All told, my rating isn't fair to him. He deserves better -- he just wound up with the wrong reader.

[Sandy D. · Rating 3 out of 5]

A meandering memoir about buying a villa in Tuscany and restoring the grotto, making wine, planting all kinds of flowers and making geometric patterns of grass and tile. Not recommended unless you really like reading about gardens.

I do, and it was still difficult sometimes, not being to see any pictures of this place, and thinking that Tuscany must be absolutely stuffed with foreigners with beautiful homes and peasant gardeners with green fingers.

The book doesn't describe this place half as well as the photos do (and the author's pencil illustrations in the book? Not so great.):

http://www.agardeninlucca.com/

[Dan Downing · Rating 4 out of 5]

An elegant journal, with charming though sometimes cunningly pointed asides describes an American expatriate couples' inadvertent snaring by an Italian Villa and its decrepit garden.

Through the course of several years, the author learns about plants and gardens by subscribing to periodicals, reading book after book, talking to 'gardeners' and visiting some of the best gardens in Italy. These visits he shares with us, along with portraits of some of the gardeners and many of the plants---both the must haves and the must-avoids.
Witty and insightful and appealing even to den dwellers, this is
Recommended.

[Nikki Bezdel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn't really ever get into this one. Some nice evocative descriptions of Italy and meals enjoyed here and there. A few amusing anecdotal tales scattered along the way, but I never managed a connection with the writer or his Italian garden. Even at the close of the book, I was unable to build an image of this labour of love in my mind's eye. Perhaps it's my imagination which is lacking, but I am more inclined towards the view that the author simply failed to paint a picture of his creation with words.

[Sandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are a dreamy gardener who has visions of Tuscany in your head, this book is for you. Again, a book that livens the senses, insiring and a get away book for reading in only one place: the garden!

I googled this writer and found his absolutely gorgeous gardens/villa in Italy and saw that part of it is for rent, oh my, it would be so wonderful, but very pricy. If anyhing, made me yern for gorgeous lush green gardens and lots of pots of lemon trees.

[Kv · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dreadful. Despised it but read it all. Only if you're a gardener you might like this. The author never did explain how at one point, they were almost bankrupt but suddenly came back to Lucca to continue their beloved garden. One went back to NY "to write" (did he sell any written work?) and the other volunteered (not much money in that). Awful to the very end.

[Kay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gervais has an engaging style, but at times this book dragged a bit. He's best when writing about his feelings for the house and garden he obviously loves; less appealing are sections concerning social exploits, with a bit too much name-dropping for my taste.

[Vicki · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very so-so. Not what I expected.

[Linda · Rating 2 out of 5]

A little about Italy and a lot about gardening. Would have liked to see more about Italy.

[Helen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Garden memoir.