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alilbitofreading's review against another edition
3.0
This reminded me of my time in Rome, which made me reminisce about my time in Italy. It also reminded me that I really do not want children. Overall, this was all right. I simply enjoy reading other people’s experiences abroad for the most part.
kris45's review
Stretches of absolutely read-halting, beautiful prose intertwined with the realities and frustrations of daily life for an American living in Rome.
serenitylive's review
3.0
This book was a nice fit for the Tom Clancy quote I consider advice: The only way to do all the things you'd like to do is to read. The book definitely put me in Rome, in the lucky reality of being paid to be there to write whatever I felt like writing. I didn't love the style. It's meditative, "This happens, then this. These are the colors I see, the sounds I hear." It's brief and neatly organized by season and worth it for a few pretty passages that focus the sights and sounds into thoughts about writing and life.
ngalbani's review against another edition
5.0
Anthony Doerr’s memoir of his year in Rome was a discover for me. I am from the province of Rome, and I thought to know Rome very well, but He gave me a new insight and perspective in this town. I found some of his description about Romans very true (Yes, we love little kids and we often start playing with them even though we don’t know them! And Yes we overdress often!).
He wrote sometimes that in our everyday life we stop noticing things because of “habit”, reading this book gave me the chance of seeing Rome with different eyes and I am grateful for this.
He wrote sometimes that in our everyday life we stop noticing things because of “habit”, reading this book gave me the chance of seeing Rome with different eyes and I am grateful for this.
ahpotts's review
4.0
So much good writing in this short (tired) memoir of Doerr’s year in Rome not long after his twins were born. It’s decidedly not fast-paced, but I especially loved glimpses into Doerr’s writing (hint: he didn’t get much done on his novel this year) and to the ways he sees the world. Perfect? Nah - he’d just had twins. Good? Oh, yes. I am already thinking of several friends with small children who might appreciate the implicit hope of this tiny memoir.
bookrecsplease's review
3.0
If you’re wondering if you might want to read this book, this is the structure, repeated over and over in different orders.
- Tiny anecdote showing wonder at how Italy is so different from the USA
- 15 second story showing overwhelm or loneliness at how Italy is so different from the USA
- History of a Roman building
- Description of a 30 second experience with his infants
- Anxious intrusive thoughts
- Detailed description of beautiful landscape
- Tidbit he learned from a book he was reading at the time
- Tragic world event described to pin down the date of when his life events are happening
- Tragic local event
I found it so incredibly choppy because each story spans maybe a few minutes and then we’re on to one of the other topics. It’s almost like a bullet point list of experiences and thoughts that are each so brief and generally in chronological order but there’s no direction or momentum to them.
This book is basically a compilation of thoughts and vignettes of mini experiences of a typical American trying to make their way in a foreign European country for the first time, surprised and lonely in turn. On the other side of the coin is, once again, loosely strung together thoughts and very short experiences of raising difficult newborn twins as a very anxious parent. It is very viscerally real for anyone that has ever had to be up feeding a baby every three hours and existed in a state of constant sleeplessness for an extended period of time.
Since it’s his memoir of that time, there’s not a strong direction for the plot beyond the passing of time, and so it’s hard to feel much purpose in a lot of the stories. The chosen anecdotes at times seem random or unimportant to me. And if you’ve ever lived in a beautiful foreign country for a while, you’ll have already been through basically identical experiences that he describes — they’re not particularly unique or insightful.
I think this book would be an amazing family treasure to document that time in their family’s history, but for a random person reading this, it may not mean much.
- Tiny anecdote showing wonder at how Italy is so different from the USA
- 15 second story showing overwhelm or loneliness at how Italy is so different from the USA
- History of a Roman building
- Description of a 30 second experience with his infants
- Anxious intrusive thoughts
- Detailed description of beautiful landscape
- Tidbit he learned from a book he was reading at the time
- Tragic world event described to pin down the date of when his life events are happening
- Tragic local event
I found it so incredibly choppy because each story spans maybe a few minutes and then we’re on to one of the other topics. It’s almost like a bullet point list of experiences and thoughts that are each so brief and generally in chronological order but there’s no direction or momentum to them.
This book is basically a compilation of thoughts and vignettes of mini experiences of a typical American trying to make their way in a foreign European country for the first time, surprised and lonely in turn. On the other side of the coin is, once again, loosely strung together thoughts and very short experiences of raising difficult newborn twins as a very anxious parent. It is very viscerally real for anyone that has ever had to be up feeding a baby every three hours and existed in a state of constant sleeplessness for an extended period of time.
Since it’s his memoir of that time, there’s not a strong direction for the plot beyond the passing of time, and so it’s hard to feel much purpose in a lot of the stories. The chosen anecdotes at times seem random or unimportant to me. And if you’ve ever lived in a beautiful foreign country for a while, you’ll have already been through basically identical experiences that he describes — they’re not particularly unique or insightful.
I think this book would be an amazing family treasure to document that time in their family’s history, but for a random person reading this, it may not mean much.
arielamandah's review
5.0
I would read a grocery list or a phone book cover to cover if Mr. Doerr was behind it.
(Thanks for the impetus and the reminder to finally drag this one off the "to read" shelf, Lindsay...)
(Thanks for the impetus and the reminder to finally drag this one off the "to read" shelf, Lindsay...)