Rating: 
Summary: I loved it!
Review: I left this book in a hotel in Fl while on a business trip and ordered another one...its a keeper!
Rating: 
Summary: Wherever you go, there you are
Review: The reader-reviewers from Pennsylvania and Cambridge (above) reflect my impressions exactly. If you want to get to know Italians and Italy (short of spending a very long time there), read Tim Parks, Barbara Grizzutti Harrison, E. M. Forster. If you want recipes, read Marcella Hazen. If you want to read a really delightful travel memoir, read At Home in France, by Anne Barry.
Rating: 
Summary: It's a memoir not a travelogue
Review: I adored this book. I'm stunned by all the negative and frankly, bitter, comments of many of the previous reviewers. Remember this is not a travel book; it is a memoir written by a poet. One reviewer complained about "authors [who] just bore you to death with the banal details of their lives." That is what a memoir is. A memoir presents the details of daily life, the activities, the thoughts, the memories, the reflections, and what it was like to experience them. A memoir certainly may present vivid details of events with finely drawn portraits of the people involved, but it doesn't have to. This memoir, as you might expect from a poet, is the author's private interior monologue. It is more about her than about Tuscany; that is what I loved about it. I don't generally like straight travel books. Nothing wrong with them; I just prefer autobiography. This book wasn't meant to be a travelogue. I didn't find her tone smug or superior; it was my impression that she was in a perpetual state of wonder at her great good fortune in finding the house and being able to acquire it. The key to her attitude is in a comment she made during the Christmas visit: "Is this much happiness allowed?" I rationed this book like a bag of my favorite cookies, slowing down as I reached the bottom of the bag, hating to have it end.
Rating:
Summary: Excelente!
Review: Have you ever wanted to just escape all the stresses of your life and start all over? "Under the Tuscan Sun" is Frances Mayes' captivating memoir of a life-changing event: buying a 30-year old house in Tuscany, spending the next years of her life restoring it to its' former grandeur. Written with wit and charm, Mayes recounts her encounters with Italian workmen who build and tear down walls as she "becomes Italian" herself. In this audio version you can hear the story as it was meant to be told: with Mayes' hint of a Southern accent adding to her dry sense of humor. After "Under the Tuscan Sun," you'll want to follow in her footsteps, learning Italian, making pasta, sampling olive oils with crusty bread and parmiggiano.
Rating:
Summary: A mixed bag, but with some beautiful tastes and smells.
Review: My favorite parts of this book involve the author's descriptions of Italian summer meals in all their stages, from shopping at the market to preparation to the after-dinner laziness and companionship. Her descriptions of warm purple grapes bursting in her mouth, of running honey-drizzled figs under the broiler and covering them in cream, of eating with friends at a big wooden table outdoors, all make me wish horribly that I had the funds and the leisure time to live this kind of lifestyle. Indeed, the "simple pleasures" that she partakes of in her remodeled Tuscan farmhouse are pleasures that precious few people can afford to enjoy (or at least to enjoy in Italy)...so I'm jealous, and it makes me like the book a little less out of sheer spite. Mayes says in her introduction that this book is an outgrowth of her journal/scrapbook from the first few summers in Tuscany, and often the writing seems very journal-like, fragmented, impressionistic, personal, sometimes mundane. That's all right, I suppose, but I wish I were less conscious of the author sitting there diarying her day and more sucked into the experience myself. As vivid as some of the writing is, I still feel more like an observer than a participant because of the writing style. Taken overall, however, it's a rather powerful inducement to chuck one's day-to-day existence and go indulge one's senses, however temporarily. I haven't read "A Year in Provence," since I'm more drawn to Italy than France, but I might now, since other readers have drawn interesting comparisons.
Rating:
Summary: Tedious read. Unorganized material.
Review: I found this book tedious. Perhaps more work should have been done rather than simply copy the author's scrapbook memoirs into book form. Not enough care was taken in the organization of the text. In addition, the workers and their names, the contractors, those that did the work, and those that applied for the work, they're ALL there and are taking up too much space and time for no reason. Some are such unnecessary characters. So a contractor seemed to be charming, but she didn't hire him... I feel like the author would list everyone she met in the street if she only had their names in her scrapbook. Why was this book on the bestseller lists?
Rating:
Summary: If I had to choose between Provence and Tuscany...
Review: I have a feeling that the author really liked the Provence books by Peter Mayle. Although I enjoyed the book, the characters were no where near as colorful and the situations not nearly as amusing. I appreciated the fact that she didn't spend too much time on her personal situation, some authors just bore you to death
with the banal details of their lives. The most enjoyable part of this book were the recipes and the descriptions of the wonderful food and wine. Obviously
an accomlished chef with an imaginative palate, she made my mouth water with the details of Tuscan cuisine. The only thing better in the book were the recipes she added. I can't wait for summer! I'll also be on the lookout for discount fares to Italy!
Rating:
Summary: A brilliant way to spend a summer's read
Review: It is so easy to be envious of a lifestyle that jets between the dreamy Tuscan village and the dreary life of academia in a busy, unexcitable American city. Most of all the envy comes when it the reader's stomach is empty and the delicious food is rolled out before your very eyes. To be read only after eating.
Rating:
Summary: A delightful and useful book.
Review: The book was recommended by acquaintances who frequently travel to Italy as the best book on Tuscan country living. I wouldn't go nearly that far, although I've read damn few books on Tuscan country living. I have, however, spent 2 holidays in a villa about 15 minutes from Cortona and was delighted to read about places that I knew and about places that I had missed but will certainly look for when I go back this summer. Her descriptions of Cortona are marvellous though they do not quite reach the level of wonder that I felt the first time I gazed from its old walls into the Valdichiana. It is an absolutely incredible place particularly, as she notes, in the maze of steep streets and alleys above the centro. Her recipes and philosophical digressions were highly skippable. I was more interested in reading her descriptions of the countryside, the towns, festivals, stores and restaurants. Her detailed descriptions of the search for the house, its purchase and the renovations were very useful for me as I have spent more than one long winter evening seriously contemplating doing exactly those things. I have always eventually dismissed the idea as wildly romantic and just plain impossible but after reading her account, I'm not so sure. The brief descriptions of the Italians she encountered and her musings about their stories, real or imagined, were enjoyable. We've met some interesting characters in our travels there and I have found myself thinking some of the thoughts that she has written. Italians, though generally friendly and helpful to strangers, are a more private people than North Americans and do not readily volunteer personal information to those they don't know well. I'm sure that one of the delights of her extended residence in Bramasole is the opportunity to get to know the people and to understand a way of life which visitors can all too easily romantisize and distort. I recommend the book, particularly to those who have visited the area and have been as taken with it as I was.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent book by a fine poet.
Review: Ms. Mayes's writing is fresh, clear, intelligent and some passages could easily pass for extended prose poems. She was a poet for many years before writing this book; I find it humorous when I hear her referred to as a travel writer. She's a poet *first* in my mind, a fine poet at that. To address some of the critical comments: 1) She has summers off because, like many writers, she supports herself by teaching. That she teaches poetry in the MFA program at UCSF is not a sign of privilege, believe me. Many authors (John Irving, for example) have pointed out that teaching is the profession that enables writers to continue their writing. 2) Prior to this book, Ms. Mayes was just a poet who worked as a professor, a textbook to her name, some anthologized poems, but no significant notoriety. It's just silly to criticize her because she's reached some mass market success with this book. Alluding to the book's success (and its financial rewards) and her particularly fortunate arrangement being a professor as somehow making her less honest (or superficial or pretentious or snooty) is just not fair. A year ago she would have seemed to you as nothing more than a faceless poet-professor. Ms. Mayes is a writer with great integrity. Her sheer descriptive power is delicately balanced with an accessibility that only the finest, most seasoned writers can attain. This book was a joy to read, I didn't want it to end. I rationed it, too.
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