Under the Tuscan Sun: At Home in Italy in The Complete Idiots Guide to the Ultimate Reading List

Sep 30, 2012 Lisa (Harmonybites) rated it liked it

Shelves: travel, 2012-around-the-world, non-fiction, biography, memoir, ultimate-reading-list

Reading this memoir of an American woman who buys and renovates a three-story Italian Villa with her husband, I can understand why so many love and so many others hate the book. I feel mixed myself. To understand how readers feel, let me quote you her description of their new Summer residence, just an hour away from Florence:

A dignified house near a Roman road, an Etruscan (Etruscan!) wall looming at the at the top of the hillside, a Medici fortress in sight, a view toward Monte Amiata, a passag Reading this memoir of an American woman who buys and renovates a three-story Italian Villa with her husband, I can understand why so many love and so many others hate the book. I feel mixed myself. To understand how readers feel, let me quote you her description of their new Summer residence, just an hour away from Florence:

A dignified house near a Roman road, an Etruscan (Etruscan!) wall looming at the at the top of the hillside, a Medici fortress in sight, a view toward Monte Amiata, a passageway underground, one hundred and seventeen olive trees, twenty plums, and still uncounted apricot, almond, apple, and pear trees. Several figs seem to thrive near the wall. Beside the front steps there's a large hazelnut.... In front the two palm trees rising on either side of the front door make the house look as though it should be in Costa Rica or Tangier.

First, one imagines some are going to hate the woman and this book from sheer envy. Mayes describes a rarefied life-style that makes Martha Stewart sound very déclasse. Assuming you're not fabulously wealthy, you have to be willing to enter into this as a fantasy setting to savor, one where you kick off your Italian shoes, admire the antique fresco uncovered on your wall as you nibble on Gorgonzola, sip your house wine made from the grapes out back, lean in to smell the freshly cut roses from out front, and listen to Scarlatti being played on your piano by your guest.

Second, there's the style. Note the present tense of the quotation--that's used throughout. The author is described on the back cover as a poet, and the narrative is very lyrical, almost prose poetry. For some that will be part of the charm--others might find it purple or overwritten. I actually felt a bit mixed. I thought much of the writing quite beautiful, but the style didn't wear well. After a hundred pages of it I felt glutted, on sensory overloaded and finding it irresistible to skim. Part of that might be my fault for reading this page after page as if it were a novel. I suspect that like any rich food, this might fare better taken in small bites--such as one chapter a day.

I think the substance and style work together to enchant or repel depending on a reader's tastes. This isn't anything like the film of the same name. There's no story here, no romance. They renovate their villa and they cook and eat--a lot. (Over 20 pages of gourmet recipes such as "Pea and Shallot Bruschetta" are included.) Rather, this is a rather decadent paean to the senses. ...more

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