- Paperback: 352 pages
- Publisher: Anchor; Reprint edition (Jun 8 2004)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1400031079
- ISBN-13: 978-1400031078
- Product Dimensions: 13.2 x 1.9 x 20.3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 181 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #399,541 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||
Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
In this lighthearted romp, Craig's second novel to be published in the U.S. (after In a Dark Wood), Theo, a successful American businessman residing in London with his wife, Polly, and their son and daughter, Robbie and Tania, rent a house in Tuscany for a two-week vacation. With match-making intentions, they invite seven friends, including an Indian-British divorc‚e, Hemani, with a young son, Bron; former model Ellen; three eligible bachelors; and, most formidable of all, Theo's starchy mother. At the end of the first week, Polly is doing all the work, her relationship with Theo is crumbling, the hoped-for romances are not materializing and the three youngsters are fighting with one another. Only the owner of the house, a "W. Shade," is absent. The vacation appears to be a failure, but something of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream haunts the lush forest nearby, especially when Tania, with the advice of sparkle-sized fairy folk, prepares and administers a potion to the adults. The romantic entanglements that ensue might flummox even Shakespeare; one is not between a previously argumentative couple at all, but between two men, one of whom is Theo. Craig is perhaps too leisurely about introducing the quasi-fantasy element, but it works, and when the mysterious W. Shade finally arrives, he is in for a romantic surprise of his own. This is amusing, featherweight stuff, and readers who love to see posh vacationers gamboling about in Italy will eat it up.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From School Library Journal
Adult/High School-When a group of American and English friends gather at a house in Tuscany for a two-week vacation, they find more than they bargained for. A sophisticated bunch, they are modern royalty of a sort-celebrities in their fields-but they can't seem to jell as a group, and matchmaking efforts fail, too. Married or single, they are all out of step. The three children-two boys and a girl-squabble like any youngsters, but when, in brief but lovely passages, the author reveals something of their consciousness, they become a link to an underlying magic. Running wild in the countryside, they find fairies who give the girl recipes for potions. The children use them to induce the adults to love the right people, but of course these plans go awry. On Midsummer Night, mysterious forces conspire to draw everyone into the woods and keep them all there. Or did they just get lost? Was this really magic, or just the effervescence of discovering life's possibilities in a new setting? This is a bright, amusing story, and for readers who have already succumbed to the charm of William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, it will be a special treat. Craig evokes the fey qualities of the well-loved play with many references to characters and situations, and she captures to perfection the quality of a midsummer enchantment.
Christine C. Menefee, Fairfax County Public Library, VA
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Christine C. Menefee, Fairfax County Public Library, VA
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items. |
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most helpful customer reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars
Disappointing,
By A Customer
This review is from: Love in Idleness: A Novel (Hardcover)
While I enjoyed the allusions to A Midsummer Night's Dream, one of my favorite Shakespeare plays, I found this book far from satisfying. Craig evokes the Italian landscape beautifully, but I couldn't get past my disgust with some of the characters. Betty is horrid, but she's supposed to be; the problem is with characters we're meant to view sypathetically. Polly is a spritless doormat, only slightly evolved by the end of the book, and her two children are among the most hateful, odious brats I've ever seen in fiction. Craig apparently writes children's books as well as reviewing them; I hope she doesn't think all children are as rude and insensitive as those she portrays here. Quite polluted an otherwise pleasant read.
5.0 out of 5 stars
wonderful holiday read, charming and intelligent,
By "acarponi" (London UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Love in Idleness: A Novel (Hardcover)
I picked up this book in Cortona itself, and was enchanted from the very first page - although I have to say that sadly the town is less attractive and more touristy than that depicted in Craig's novel or Frances Mayes's Under the Tuscan Sun. The arrival of the Nobles, their family and friends (and particularly Betty, the mother-in-law who immediately commandeers the best bed in the house)were instantly and hilariously true to life. Yet there is also a deeper strain to the story, about the imagination and its powers to transform the way we see others, both erotically and as individuals. A novel about love and sex, it is also about children and literature. I was interested to see, after looking her up on the Internet, that Craig is a notable reviewer of children's books for the London Times. Perhaps this accounts for her remarkable portrayal of the way children, as well as their parents, see the world.
2.0 out of 5 stars
disappointed.,
By illmetbymoonlight (Uranus) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Love in Idleness: A Novel (Hardcover)
not as good as it sounds. a dull read with a weird ending
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Want to see more reviews on this item?
|
Most recent customer reviews |
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
