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Summary: Sour Lemons
Review: I love Spain and when I saw this book was extremely excited and looking forward to reading it. Unfortunately, I found the book to be a bit short on charm. Although episodic in structure, the author sometimes gets a bit side-tracked and begins focusing too much attention and detail on the more technical aspects of owning a home in Spain--do we really need a whole chapter on water irrigation? The people are what is most interesting here and not enough time is spent painting vivid portraits of what is really the most enjoyable part about traveling--the characters you meet.
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Summary: Wow!
Review: I loved this book. I had a hard time putting it down, and when I finally finished it, I was disappointed there weren't more chapters. Chris writes from the first person and so accurately describes his neighbors, the customs, the people reactions and his living situations in such detail you can almost see it.
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Summary: Really quite boring
Review: I read this book about 1 year after i visited the same town that is depicted in this book. I stayed in a small house outside of town with a lemon orchard and olive trees that had been bought and was in the process of being fixed up by an English couple. So, i was excited when i saw this book. I expected to read wonderful descriptions of the surrounding mountains and the town... unfortunately, the couple in the story have such uninteresting observations about their surroundings, it made the entire book quite bland. I wish i hadn't read it, so that my own vibrant memories of that place could have remained untainted.
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Summary: Loved it!
Review: I think most has already been said. So I'm just going to add that I really enjoyed this book. I thought it was interesting, pleasant and even funny at times. I feel like I really got to know this family and actually started caring about them. Wonderful. Liked it better then "Spanish Lessons" which is very similar in that it depicts a family moving to a small village in Spain.Love the cover design.
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Summary: *ugh* nature!
Review: I'm no nature girl.. but this book made me consider traipsing off to some distant land to spend the rest of my days eating whatever I could kill with my bow and arrow and sleeping on the scorpion-ridden ground.. ok ..maybe not..but this book was truly wonderful! I couldn't put it down!
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Summary: A Good Lemon
Review: If you are looking for some easy, relaxing reading, then this is a good choice. This book works simply because it doesn't try to do any more than tell a simple story. The story of how the life of an average guy changes when he does what many of us would like to do from time to time. Sell up and move to a place like sunny Spain. The book follows Chris finding a place to live, a run down old farm. Moving his wife and possessions, and settling in and raising a family. All away from the Rat Race that most of us live in. This book was a pleasure to read. I wish I had his guts to break free.
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Summary: Driving Over Lemons
Review: If you have been a fan of Peter Mayle who seems to be the senior statesman of "honey let's quit our jobs and buy a place in a foreign land" genre of literature, then you should also like this book. Although not as humorous or wry as the "Provence" series, the author does well by inviting you into his life with a degree of candor and unassuming charm that is much more refreshing than the somewhat tiresome cadence of self absorbed authors such as Francis Mayes ("Under the Tuscan Sun"). Unlike Mayes or Mayle, the author actually attempts to assimilate himself to a greater degree by taking over the farm to become a farmer, as opposed to an author, as so many other books of this type demonstrate. From this perspective, it becomes a refreshing change of pace and perspective for the reader. This book is good, easy to read and enjoy, but will not go down as a classic. Never the less, if you want a fun and easy to take dose of living in a foreign land, this one is for you. The ending page is also special.
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Summary: Another British expat homesteads foreign soil
Review: If you've enjoyed Peter Mayle's series on Provence initiated when he and his wife bought and refurbished a dilapidated French farmhouse, or EXTRA VIRGIN by Annie Hawes, then you'll be positively enamored of DRIVING OVER LEMONS, written by Chris Stewart, another Brit wishing to escape the island. Perhaps it's the weather. Chris, a sheep-shearer and sometime travel writer, begins his narrative as he's traveling alone in Spain's Andalusia. Right off, he spends his life's savings on a somewhat isolated, but definitely rustic, farm called El Valero without first calling England to consult with his wife, Ana. (Now, this strikes me as a markedly hazardous course, and brings to mind the prudent caution, "Don't try this at home".) In any case, he adroitly manages to sell the concept to a dubious spouse, and soon the Stewarts and the family dog cut all ties to Sussex and immigrate to their new rural residence. One major difference between author Stewart and author Mayle is that the former doesn't dwell hedonistically on the food and wine of his adopted country. (One brief reference to a local delicacy favored by Macho Locals, burnt chicken's heads, may indicate the grounds for such an omission.) Rather, DRIVING OVER LEMONS is all about rebuilding El Valero into something more civilized, installing running water via an ancient aqueduct, constructing a bridge over a river that flows through the property, acquiring and maintaining a herd of sheep, begetting a daughter, Chloe, and interacting with the natives and other members of the Foreign Community. However, one characteristic that Chris does share with Mayle (and Hawes) is a wonderfully dry and entertaining wit that seems to be a genetic trait of British expatriate writers. For example, when describing the belated christening ceremony of 3 year-old Chloe: "Chloe looked as if she was about to cut up rough but Ana managed to bribe her into a hesitant co-operation by flashing the edge of a bar of chocolate, kept at the ready in her pocket, and pointing meaningfully towards the altar. Chloe edged forward throwing side glances at the chocolate in the way that sailors keep a lighthouse in view when crossing onshore tides. (After the ceremony) Ana and I breathed a sigh of relief as she slunk back to (her best friend) Rosa clutching her chocolate. I like to think they shared it. It's no good going through the form of the thing, you have to act by its precepts." I enjoyed this volume immensely, and hope that Stewart, like Mayle, will make a literary series of it. Andalusia is a place I will likely never visit, and Chris is a convivial and likable guide.
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Summary: In the vein of Peter Mayle
Review: Initially, I thought that this book would be to Spain what Peter Mayle's ("A Year in Provence," "Toujours Provence") were to France and Frances Mayes' ("Under the Tuscan Sun")were to Italy. Although this book lacks the laugh-out-loud funniness of those two authors, it succeeds quite well in its own right. The narrator impulsively buys a farm in Andalucia, inheriting scorpions, bad walls, and a bridge about to be washed out at any minute, among other conundrums. When he and his wife move in, they briefly experience being fish out of water before learning to settle in and feel comfortable with their new surroundings. They are surrounded both by native Spaniards and other English expats (notably, a hilariously hippie English couple). Although this book lacks some of the humor of Mayle's multiple works about Provence, it also lacks (fortunately) what too often appears to be Mayle's disregard for his "provincial" neighbors. Chris Stewart looks at Spaniards with great respect and affection (and looks to them, many times, for help), and there is a very touching scene where he asks a neighbor to be the godfather of his newly born daughter Chloe. There are a few funny scenes, and most of them concern the stubborn sheep that Stewart seems driven to buy despite his utter lack of experience with them. A charming travelogue.
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Summary: What it is...
Review: So many of th reviewers here seem to want this book to be something it is not. This is a story about Chris Stewart's experience in Spain as a sheep farmer, and a darn good one at that. His stories of getting hooked by the real estate agent, losing his sheep, and learning from and teaching the locals are funny and warm hearted. I highly recommend it.
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