Rating: 
Summary: Under the Tuscan Sun: At Home in Italy
Review: Never have I read a book that brought forth the assortment of feelings that this one has, beginning with envy as I read the first two chapters. I am not normally an envious person, content as I am with my life. How an American, not even an Italian-American, was able to purchase a house in Italy, an ancient and charming house named "Bramasole" in a beautiful setting, is certainly mind-boggling in itself. However, envy turned to concern and even pity, as the author described what she and her Ed had to go through to make the 30-year-vacant house a home. The first time I read it, was like reading someone's journal which revealed thoughts and feelings as well as the Italian world she had become a part of by being a land owner. Descriptions of her and Ed manually clearing the neglected terraces and walls left me feeling the fatigue and summer heat, then the excitement as they found what the old underbrush covered. I sympathized as they struggled step by step when new challenges appeared. This is conveyed without grumbling. In the fall they return to their home in America and to their jobs. Their love for the house in Italy and the way of life they return to every summer is evident. Now as I read it for the third time, Frances Mayes' poetic descriptions of the land, the people, the food, take on a visual dimension. An added delight are the many wonderful recipes, all with "comfort food" qualities, that are sprinkled throughout the book. I found it an enchanting work of art, an inspiration to, --no, not run off and buy a house in Italy--tempting as that may be, but to travel to Italy and see Italy with new eyes. Thank you, Frances Mayes. Am waiting for you to do a full-color photo book of this little piece of heaven.
Rating: 
Summary: plodding author takes herself too seriously
Review: Expecting the Italian counterpart of "A Year in Provence" (a witty, well-written, utterly amusing introduction to people and food in the French countryside, which inspired me to travel to Provence), I was sorely disappointed. Mayes's writing style may be "poetic" as some of the other reviewers have mentioned, but I would have enjoyed the book more if it had instead been written with clarity and readability in mind (for example, coming across a pronoun in a sentence, I didn't like having to think, even for a split-second, about which if any of the preceding nouns is the pronoun's antecedent). I also found myself losing interest in some of her long rambling descriptive passages--e.g., the various holes (which turned out to be some kind of water reservoir system) in the tumble-down walls in the yard: were the holes in the walls or the ground under the walls, and how exactly did the water gather in the (interlinked) holes? not that this information is essential to the story, but if there's half a page of text on it, the text should be understandable or at least interesting in some way (e.g., the surprise of discovery of these holes or their oddity could have been built up better).However, a couple of her recipes sounded interesting and I may try some of them.
Rating:
Summary: Expert prose but no page-turner
Review: The idea of an exploration of the simple life in the picturesque Tuscany from the view of the American rich and well-educated, sprinkled with local color in form of authentic recipes sounded promising. But although the descriptions of land and people were rich and often poetic, the book just couldn't hold my interest. There were just too many details about the reconstruction too much own shoulder patting and too little 'action'. It was like watching a 4-hour uncut home video from a friend's vacation: Interesting mostly for the people in it.
Rating: 
Summary: The Richness of Italy
Review: Under the Tuscan Sun is a book completely filled with extravagant and sumptious descriptions of the Italian Tuscan countryside, its lush fruits, vegetables, and flowers, olive groves, orchards, and vineyards. After several summers of visits to Italy, the author takes the plunge and buys a centuries old farmhouse near Cortona. The book details the progress and difficulty of restoring a house in a foreign country as well as the satisfaction gained when even the smallest project is completed. We travel through several years and many more dreams as the author accomplishes what she originally envisioned her Italian home to be. Anyone who has ever restored or remodeled a house on foreign soil can appreciate the problems and anticipation that go hand in hand with such projects--not to mention the untimate pleasure when the project eventually becomes a home. Equally interesting are the recipes rich with local produce, the pressing of one's own olives into oil, tours of ancient churches and towns, the reviving of once vital olive trees and grape vines, and the lovely introspective passages that reveal the spiritual aspects of such a project and dedication to the richness of life. This is truly a book to be savored and reread, and even if you never get to Tuscany, you will retain a bit of it in your psyche.
Rating:
Summary: MARTHA STEWART DOES ITALY
Review: A book about the simple life? Maybe, if you have tons of money to carelessly fling about. Simple planks make lovely shelves.....yeah, right. It would probably cost a hundred bucks per plank to get something that doesn't look like a recycled pallet. I was swept up occasionally by some poetic descriptions, but the effect was lost as she kept going on and on and on and on.... Ms. Mayes seems rather emotionally detached from people. She appreciates them in an aesthetic sense, but I get the feeling that she would ditch her husband if he didn't match the decor.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting- but poorly written.
Review: Although I enjoyed this book, I found it poorly written. I was surprised to discover that the author actually TEACHES in UNIVERSITY. Since I acquired my degree in a US University that actually REQUIRES that one know how to write, this scares me!! I DID enjoy her food experiences. And, to those who rally against that in the book, you really do NOT understand Italy. Italy is all ABOUT food! If you visit Italy on a diet, what a waste of a trip!
Rating:
Summary: Martha Stewart Goes to Tuscany
Review: To be fair I would have rated this 2.5 stars. There were parts of the book I did like. The negotiations and some insights into the Italian personality were on target. I also enjoyed most of the descriptions of the rennovation, some of the travelogue and the recipes. But Frances certainly does ramble on. Self-absorbed and pretentious are putting it mildly. She wants us to know she came from a privileged background in the South, had a cook (I lost count of how many times she brought that up) and a seamstress. She evidently has a substantial financial reserves which allowed her to buy the villa, rennovate it, make countless purchases for it, go on numerous trips to and from Italy, travel within Italy staying at various hotels and buying/preparing/eating enough food to feed a small country in need. Her musings on religion and Catholicism in particular were simplistic. At times her descriptions of both Italians and Poles boarded on caricature. If you really want to read Under the Tuscan Sky, my recommendation is to get this book from a library instead of helping to finance the author's next trip to Tuscany. Also, Tim Parks has written several books about life in Italy that are, in my opinion, far superior to this book.
Rating:
Summary: Sunny,Inspirational and refreshing! Read it this summer!
Review: As Ms.Mayes says, this is a book about the simple life in Italy. A life so simple that in its simplicity and beauty is always charming. I have read many books that describe in words and pictures the wonderful places that one can find everywhere in Italy,but "Under the Tuscan Sun" rather than photograph peoples and places inspires the reader to rethink the notion of a voyage or for that matter of a vacation. After reading "Under the Tuscan Sun" I got the final push that made me buy a small apartment at a beachfront and transform it into a little mediterranean paradise (it is in the caribbean, actually.) Mayes racount of how she converted an old house in the Tuscan Countryside, that she found and bought in shambles, into a second home abroad full of light and aromas is an entertaining and inspirational reading... and the recipes, excellent if you are into cooking or just enjoy a good meal, a sunny book!
Rating:
Summary: Poor Rich Girl Decorates Old Run-Down Villa
Review: The lemon cake recipe is the rich part. The poor girl who read the entire book for her book club was me. This book will NOT decorate my bookshelf, it's going to be recycled at the Goodwill. I gave the book 2 stars: one because someone actually published it and the second because I really gave it the time to finish it, hoping that I would find a plot or story that I could talk about with my fellow readers. To think I actually recommended this one, well, better luck next month.
Rating:
Summary: I tried
Review: I rarely don't finish books. I think I made it through 200 pages of this one before I finally flung it across the room. The author does a good job of describing food and recipes and inspired me to try some of them. That was why I gave the book 2 stars. If it had been written as a cookbook with some brief diversionary stories about Italy I would have enjoyed it. Unfortunately, the author bores you with long, drawn out, self indulgent episodes about her summers in Italy. I finally thought to myself, if someone like this cornered me at a party I would deperately be trying to get away from them. Instead of being transported to a idyllic place, I felt like I was trapped in my living room with an annoying neighbor with boxes of vacation slides.
|
