Customer Reviews

Bella Tuscany: The Sweet Life in Italy

5 star:		(32)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(15)
1 star:		(43)

 

 

I'm proud of myself for finishing this giant yawn of a book. I really enjoyed UNDER THE TUSCAN SUN. Yes, it was over-fawning sometimes, as well as preachy and judgmental, but it was about something: renovating a tuscan villa. I loved it for the vicarious thrill of remodeling a house, gardening, cooking, and getting to know the neighbors in Tuscany. So, I presume, did everyone else. This book, however, skimps on everything I liked in the first book and splurges on everything I hated. Three or four chapters (at most) mention the villa, the garden, and the food. That's all. The rest (i.e. most) of the book is Frances Mayes preaching about life , art, politics, and people. We get endless pages on paintings. Does she like this one? Does Ed? Should we? And just when you think you can't take any more, you get whopped with a chapter called "Breathing Art". Yes, "Breathing Art". Beyond belief, isn't it. We also get her uninformed tourist's take on Sicily and the mafia, as well as her beginning Italian speaker's take on the difference speaking Italian makes to one's world view. Then, there is Ed's poetry.... I guess that in the success of her first book, Frances Mayes forgot who she really is: a two-bit lit prof from a two-bit California college who spends a few weeks each year in Italy. Nothing else could possibly explain this book.

Now that her vacation get-away in Tuscany has been renovated, the olives planted ... Frances Mayes has run out of things to say. There are only so many pages of people eating and gardening and lounging in their lemonarias that one can stand. The vignettes of Italian life that made "Under the Tuscan Sun" so delightful are all but absent here. Frances Mayes and her husband appear to be spoiled academics with too much money and time on their hands. It is difficult to sympathize with their minor construction problems as if they are life tragedies.

Another disappointment. This dribble has little to do with Italy and no plot. This best part of the book is the picture of the house. The chapter on Sicily appears to be plagerized from On Persephone's Island by Mary Taylor Simeti who has lived in Sicily for years, speaks the language and in contrast to Ms. Mayes really knows the people (published 1986). it is disgusting to see a writer mention her sadness about prostitution in Italy and then move on to discuss hiring full time garderners and choosing between tile or marble for the bathrooms. Also, it is suprising for a woman who claims to love teaching to portray the students she has as "uh like idiots".

Please tell me what vacationing in Sicily and Venice, attending a funeral in Minnesota and a wedding in California have to do with Tuscany. The reader buys the book expecting several hundred pages filled with insight into Tuscany only to be bored to tears with the ramblings of a self-indulgent author. Frances Mayes has taken her fantasy of becoming the next Martha Stewart to the pinnacle. First she's a poet and travel writer, then a chef and now a landscape designer and art historian. Even Martha wouldn't attempt this many feats as a mere mortal! This book was written for one reason, to coattail on the success of her first book and to rip the reader off!

Ms. Mayes has, yet again, managed to upstage a land as magnificent as Italy. For yet another time we are treated to the self-absorbed ramblings of this gastronomo-llectual jet-setter. If you want to read a treatise on life as it can (apparently) be lived in a charmed and timeless European setting, try Peter Mayle's "A Year in Provence". He is mercifully less full of himself.

Last night my book club got together to discuss this wretched book. All of us absolutely *did not* like the book.
Mayes shallow, stereotyped images disgusted me, it was as though she presented a Disney-fied version of what the citizens of Tuscany were like. Mayes comes across as a snob, and one who doesn't even live an interesting life. She's rude, but not outlandishly so, I couldn't even qualify this as a guilty pleasure reading.

If you can't get to Italy anytime soon, this novel will take you there!
The graphic detail of all the history, charm of the country side and fabulous food and wine give you a true depiction of what it is really like.
Frances Mayes will introduce you to the people she meets, their quirky ways and warm traditions.
It's a light and easy read that leaves you smiling page after page.

Mayes is a treat. I loved this book as much as her previous Italy book; can't understand the attacks herein, but it doesn't matter. I love all of the Italian references. The imagery is so powerful that it almost felt as though I were in Italy. It enriched my reading experience by teaching me the finer parts of Mediterranean culture -- and Mayes has done the same in a unique and memorable way. This is a wonderful book and I highly recommend it to anyone without an ax slung over their shoulder.

This is a great book! It actually take you to a portal of Italy. Well written of Italian culture, Frances Mayes capture the bella of Italy. I love this book very much, I visited Italy before and I miss it so much. When I read this book, I feel that I am there again. I love the detail of it, I actually love when she talked about food, the market and the italian word with english beside it. I learned from the book.
If you love Italy, this is a must read.
One thing I agree with the other reader that if there's pictures and map included would make this book a plus. I really wants to see the pictures she mentioned and the map for my quick reference. I love the part she talked about mushroom and market with fresh food.

OK--Many of the customers who wrote previous reviews about Bella Tuscany have some valid complaints. It is several chapters too long and we do get tired of Mayes' whining. We have little pity for her trying to restore two houses at once and we don't need to hear about every meal and shopping excursion. It certainly does not surpass her first effort, "Under the Tuscan Sun." Still, as someone who has never been to Tuscany (or Italy for that matter), many of the descriptions in "Bella Tuscany" are little treasures. Who wouldn't want to live where you can go to one local farm for ricotta, another for pecorino romano and a third for wine? Or where Roman and Etruscan ruins are to be found in so many unsuspecting places? Or where fabulous meals can be made with only the simple ingredients you grow in your garden? Or where every small local church has a major work or art or two? I do have two recommendations that would have made this book more enjoyable; a map of Tuscany and Italy would have been helpful in identifying the many places Mayes visited. Also, I would have enjoyed more photographs other than those on the dust jacket. Maybe the few "teaser" pictures are to whet our appetite for her 3rd book, "In Tuscany." In any case, while this book has some character flaws, I think potential readers need to try to overlook these and to dig deeper for the jewel within.