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madelinepuckett 's review for:
Diary of a Tuscan Bookshop: A Memoir
by Alba Donati
I honestly was torn between 2 and 3 stars but rounding up because there are some poignant thoughts on literature and reading.
This memoir of a bookshop in a tiny town in Tuscany is sweet and hopeful. It's a light and positive chronicle of the origination and building of a bookshop on a hill in Italy.
But the writing was very disjointed. We follow the thread of several months day-to-day in the shop. My favorite parts where the ones where Donati told us what people were buying, what books she was ordering, and how reading affected her life and perspective.
But her writing about the random characters of the village and her family members was very hard to follow. We get some characterization of a few people, but otherwise it's very surface-level and doesn't add much to the narrative thread.
The other part of the memoir that was confusing - both disjointed AND repetitive, and not straightforward chronologically - was her memories of childhood and the history of trauma in her family (war and neglect, primarily). It's clear Donati wants to communicate how she is a survivor, and how books helped to bring solace to her life, but...I found those parts of the memoir less engaging. She repeats the same anecdote about her attic/tower many times, and being scared of the bathroom outside many times, but in a jumbled way. It was clear to me there was not enough distance for her to see this trauma clearly, which affected the writing of her memoir.
It's a sweet book if you love reading and bookshops. And if you're interested in manifesting/synchronicity/power of belief. Though, again, she sort of touched on these concepts on an anecdotal surface level.
It's also a time capsule discussing COVID and how it affected day-to-day life. (Which wasn't my favorite but could be interesting in the future.)
This memoir of a bookshop in a tiny town in Tuscany is sweet and hopeful. It's a light and positive chronicle of the origination and building of a bookshop on a hill in Italy.
But the writing was very disjointed. We follow the thread of several months day-to-day in the shop. My favorite parts where the ones where Donati told us what people were buying, what books she was ordering, and how reading affected her life and perspective.
But her writing about the random characters of the village and her family members was very hard to follow. We get some characterization of a few people, but otherwise it's very surface-level and doesn't add much to the narrative thread.
The other part of the memoir that was confusing - both disjointed AND repetitive, and not straightforward chronologically - was her memories of childhood and the history of trauma in her family (war and neglect, primarily). It's clear Donati wants to communicate how she is a survivor, and how books helped to bring solace to her life, but...I found those parts of the memoir less engaging. She repeats the same anecdote about her attic/tower many times, and being scared of the bathroom outside many times, but in a jumbled way. It was clear to me there was not enough distance for her to see this trauma clearly, which affected the writing of her memoir.
It's a sweet book if you love reading and bookshops. And if you're interested in manifesting/synchronicity/power of belief. Though, again, she sort of touched on these concepts on an anecdotal surface level.
It's also a time capsule discussing COVID and how it affected day-to-day life. (Which wasn't my favorite but could be interesting in the future.)