Under the Tuscan Sun is a romantic love story about a woman finding herself in a rural Italian town after a divorce. There are young neighbors in love, a pregnant lesbian friend and a flirty relationship with a realtor.
Oh, never mind, absolutely none of that’s in the book. But if that sounds appealing to you, check out the movie.
The book has an equally compelling, though very different, love story. It’s between a woman and a home. She and her husband move to Tuscany, into an abandoned villa, which she renovates extensively while becoming acclimated to a different kind of life.
I admit, I’m not focused enough to enjoy most descriptive writing. If a book strays too long into what the scenery is doing, I start skimming until more dialogue comes along. But something about Mayes’ writing, though almost entirely descriptive, kept me engaged. I hope if you pick it up, you’ll find it equally enthralling.
I’d rather move to Pompeii,
Megan
After the breakup of her marriage, Rita Golden Gelman sets off to explore the world.
Rita invades each culture she decides to inhabit, not making a short stop as tourist but a long visit as a new neighbor. The premise isn’t new, certainly not to anyone who has read more than a few travelogues, but Gelman’s stand out amongst the crowd. Her honesty in the story and the obvious connection she develops with every person she meets and befriends enriches her tales of far-off lands and adventures. Starting off moving to a remote Mexican village, where she knows nothing of the culture or the language, it’s obvious her courage allows her to explore the world to a depth few experience. Gelman talks her way into a Borneo camp studying orangutans, then spends eight years she lives in Indonesia, befriending a prince and discussing life.
My greatest desire upon finishing Gelman’s tales of her varied and exotic nomad life wasn’t to re-read her book, but to track her down and become her friend, learning how to shed my inhibitions and tackle the globe.
Reading’s the cheapest form of travel,
Megan
