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Summary: Entertaining Fluff
Review: Most fittingly I recently read this book on a flight from New York to Venice. As in flight entertainment it was enjoyable. The author's pain and vulnerability in the face of the collapse of her marriage is touching and honestly rendered, but I found the Professor not to be terribly appealing. The descriptions of various travel locales were wonderful, but the author's choosing to write the book in the second person was annoying and destracting.
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Summary: Que Bellisima! This Book Is A Great Read!
Review: I picked up An Italian Affair after a friend recommended it. I have since recommended it to my book club (we will read it next month) and passed it on to my mother, my best friend and my boyfriend! The daring writing style (2nd person - a style I have not read since A Rose for Emily and Bright Lights, Big City) just adds to the timely content - a woman in her thirties who finds freedom from her past and love in a foreign country. Wonderful self deprecating humor and insight into the fantasy we all have of a new life after an old heartbreak, this book is a MUST READ.
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Summary: Get this book!
Review: This is such a wonderful book! It took a few pages to lure me into the second person, but once I was there, I could not put the book down! Thanks for sharing your story Laura!
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Summary: Lovely, lovely book
Review: It isn't often that I read a book at one sitting. I just felt swept along by An Italian Affair. It is, by turns, heartbreaking, hilarious, life-affirming, delicious, and uplifting. I never wanted it to end! Give it to all your girlfriends--especially those who need a reminder that even if they aren't always in love, they're always lovable.
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Summary: A Luscious and Thought Provoking Read
Review: A beautifally written book that draws you in and rewards all of your senses. I gobbled up this book, with its gorgeous descriptions of Italy, the wonderful food, scenery and people, all against a sensual, yet realistic romance between two normal, imperfect people. In addition to the pure pleasure of reading this travelogue/biography/romance, it has sparked a lively discussion amongst my book club of 30 something women. How would we face Fraser's situation, thinking about issues of divorce, children and the biological clock? And what are the "right" boundaries for a marriage? Whatever answer each person might come to, I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves to travel, to eat, to live life richly or who has ever been hurt or healed by love.
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Summary: A memoir with class and a touch of sass
Review: Ms. Fraser suffers the ultimate heartbreak (her husband runs off with his high school sweetheart) and finds redemption in Italy through an affair with an (almost) dashing French professor of art history. Sound saccharin to you? No way! Fraser's memoir has just the right touches of introspection, wit, Italian food, sex and adventure to keep the prose lively and fun to read. This is a winner!
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Summary: a waste of time
Review: the story is attractive, i could't put down the book until the ending. but after reading the ending, i had a feeling being cheated. the author tactically combined her divorce healing process with her seductive romance. these two things happened at the same time but not necessarily twined together. the disappearance of the romance and phone call to her ex-husband seem abrupt, irrelevant and not convincing. however she has succeeded because of the seductive book title and human beings' desire to peep into someone elses' private lives.
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Summary: A Poignant and Sensual Journey
Review: Author Laura Fraser makes it look easy: She applies the tricky second tense to a true-life saga of heartbreak, self-doubt and the courage to heal. Her style is so light and elegant, it becomes a polished window through which her story shines.The healing occurs during travels that unfold with cinematic intensity--the deep blue Aegian; hot white rocks on the beach; dark red wine; spicy olives; an earthy, sensual French lover. That Fraser does not shy away from recording her own fears and disappointments brings depth and sweetness to the gorgeous colorscape she paints. A lovely read.
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Summary: Shallow People - even more shallow story
Review: Laura (Fraser)tries to do the Bridget Jones thing - single girl does Europe - and does it badly. Laura is forever complaining about her age (36) and her looks (check out the jacket! - this woman is a babe). We should all have such problems. After being dumped by her husband (after reading this book you'll get a good idea why) Laura embarks on exotic adventures all over the world with a married French professor who she sometimes calls M and sometimes the Professor - she can't seem to make up her mind. The utter immorality of this cheap affair nothwithstanding, the book fails on so many levels. First are the characters themselves. They are uninvolving and uninteresting. We can't root for them because they have no redeeming qualities. The are both very shallow - boring us with what they eat and where they go as if anyone cared. And they are snobs - looking down on the rest of us as if only they knew what was worthy of enjoyment. If fact, the professor admits that he is a womanizer and a snob and those are his best qualities. Well if that is the kind of guy that women are attracted to, then nice decent guys have no chance. Laura also badly stereotypes American men as if all they are interested in is football. She complains about the city she lives in - San Francisco - she should be grateful she can afford to live there - and her job - she should be thankful she has one. Laura says she works - but at what we don't know. However she seems to have all the time in the world to drop whatever she is doing and run off to some exotic place. She is always complaining about money but somehow seems to have enough. And general taste in men - always going after someone who is attractive and wealthy - explains why she goes through men like water. When there is one Italian man who is attracted to her, she dimisses him by saying "An Italian music teacher is not the best prospect". Back she goes to the chump. The story is incredibly uninvolving. It is written as a narrative (You do this and You do that) which means it is devoid of action. Laura and the professor are about the only characters which means it is almost devoid of conversation. The story only picks up near the end when they go to the island of Stromboli where they meet some interesting people but by then we have long stopped caring. Professor Snob, as we'll call him, is easily one of the most unlikable characters in literature. He is your typically sterotyped arrogant foreigner - always smoking, thinking that his taste in everything is the best and treating women as if all they are good for is sex and housework. While he is off galavanting, what is happening to his wife and kids? Some father. And his treatment of Laura is equally despicable. He classes her as a woman you can have a vacation with, as if all she is good for is sex. Of course the only reason this so-called relationship exists is sex which means it was doomed from the start. I couldn't put this book down - not because I was interested in the ending but because I just wanted to get it over with and get on to Zadie Smith's White Teeth. Laura, I know you were trying to chronicle your adventures but next time, make it fiction and please put some action and interesting characters in it. "An Italian Affair" is proof that someone's interesting life does not necessarily make an interesting novel. Sometimes, the thoughts should just stay in your head. Laura, please take a course in character development before your next book. I am very disappointed in you.
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Summary: Why read it?
Review: Somebody PLEASE tell me persuasively why this book is worth reading! It's written (so very clumsily and annoyingly) in the second person. If you have been to any of the places the writer mentions--I've been to Paris, London, Ischia, Naples, Stromboli--you'll know that her descriptions are lazy and romantic generalizations. There is nothing compelling about her story: many of us women, 30-somethings and older, have been involved in relationships with married men. What, exactly, about her relationship sheds light on what so many women have experienced? Did she get stronger and grow and learn something because of the relationship? If so, it's not described in the book. Her telling of her experience makes her sound very, very shallow. I was kind of ashamed for her, especially since it's a true story and she's baring her life to the public. Reading this, I had to think of all the relationships I and my friends have had that could trump the author's. She just had the will to write about it and get published. Good on her for that! This is mind candy. I read the whole thing while I was in the laundromat. If you need something to read while the clothes tumble in the dryer, then I guess this one is OK. If you want something that gives you insight or a reason to think, look elsewhere. As another reviewer wrote, this is "drivel".
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