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3.53 AVERAGE
3.53 AVERAGE
So boring. Chapters of endless renovation details I wouldn't want to know if it were my own house. Book & movie are COMPLETELY different. Loved the movie; dragged through the book.
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
this woman is definitely more wealthy than the average professor, and a little full of herself, but somehow, despite the fact that this book barely had a plot, it was amazing. it was like being in italy.
Unfortunately I saw the movie before I read the book. I enjoyed the movie, but found the book to be drastically different, as the movie is fiction and the book is a journal of Frances Mayes' home renovations and cooking experiments. I might have had a different opinion if I hadn't seen the movie first, but the book didn't meet what I was looking for.
slow-paced
I never thought a book about someone's experience buying a house in Tuscany could be so fascinating. It's not as if there is any huge plot, and yet Mayes keeps you going with her prose poetry. She manages to make beautiful ordinary experiences while keeping them realistic by stringing together exactly the right moments. Here's a lovely example:
"Ah, another Etruscan museum and I must see every object. Ed is through, for now, with anything that happened before the last millennium, so he goes off to buy honey from bees that have buzzed around in the coastal shrubs. We meet in a shop where I find an Etruscan clay foot for sale. Whether it's genuine or fake, I don't know. I decided to think about it while we take a walk but when we come back to buy it, the shop is closed. As we leave, I see a sign to an Etruscan site but Ed presses on the accelerator; he's tombed out."
It's easy to see why this book has become a classic.
Another beautiful passage:
"The pear tree on the front terrace has the look of a woman two weeks overdue. We should have thinned the fruit. Branches are breaking under the weight of the golden pears just turning ruddy. I can't decide whether to read metaphysics or cook. The ultimate nature of being or cold garlic soup. They are not so far apart after all. Or if they are, it doesn't matter; it's too hot to think about it.
Also, I really, really want to visit Etruscan sites.
"Ah, another Etruscan museum and I must see every object. Ed is through, for now, with anything that happened before the last millennium, so he goes off to buy honey from bees that have buzzed around in the coastal shrubs. We meet in a shop where I find an Etruscan clay foot for sale. Whether it's genuine or fake, I don't know. I decided to think about it while we take a walk but when we come back to buy it, the shop is closed. As we leave, I see a sign to an Etruscan site but Ed presses on the accelerator; he's tombed out."
It's easy to see why this book has become a classic.
Another beautiful passage:
"The pear tree on the front terrace has the look of a woman two weeks overdue. We should have thinned the fruit. Branches are breaking under the weight of the golden pears just turning ruddy. I can't decide whether to read metaphysics or cook. The ultimate nature of being or cold garlic soup. They are not so far apart after all. Or if they are, it doesn't matter; it's too hot to think about it.
Also, I really, really want to visit Etruscan sites.
This is a slim book, so why is it so hard to read? I just couldn't muck my way through it.
Very good prose, but main character is privileged to the point of a caricature and the “challenges” faced are anything but.
Beautiful descriptions of Tuscany, but halfway thru the book it lacked organization and direction. Recipes appeared out of no where. Tours of 2 Italian cities that had nothing to do with the storyline. But the ending helped to wrap up the book.