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| Under the Tuscan Sun | 
 enlarge | Author: Frances Mayes
Publisher: Bantam Books Ltd
Category: Book
List Price: £7.99
Buy Used: £0.01
You Save: £7.98 (100%)
New (26) Collectible (7) from £0.01
Avg. Customer Rating:  21 reviews
Sales Rank: 63691
Media: Paperback
Pages: 287
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5 x 0.8
ISBN: 0553506676
Dewey Decimal Number: 910
EAN: 9780553506679
ASIN: 0553506676
Publication Date: May 1, 1998
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: Ex-library copy so usual stamps etc. light reading wear, overall condition great!
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Amazon.co.uk Review
In this memoir of her buying, renovating and living in an abandoned villa in Tuscany, Frances Mayes reveals the sensual pleasure she found living in rural Italy and the generous spirit she brought with her. She revels in the sunlight and the colour, the long view of her valley, the warm homey architecture, the languor of the slow paced days, the vigor of working her garden and the intimacy of her dealings with the locals. Cooking, gardening, tiling and painting are never chores, but skills to be learned, arts to be practiced and above all to be enjoyed. At the same time Mayes brings a literary and intellectual mind to bear on the experience, adding depth to this account of her enticing rural idyll. --Amazon.com
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| Customer Reviews: Read 16 more reviews...
 Very evocative January 15, 2007
3 out of 7 found this review helpful
I can't imagine why anyone would not have liked this book, I found that it made me absolutely LONG to be in Italy, and was so very evocative and beautifully written. I am not a cook, so the recipes went over my head somewhat, but I must admit that they did titillate my tastebuds. It made me want to read so much more and I was sad to come to the end.
 Is there more to this than meets the eye? March 25, 2006
10 out of 17 found this review helpful
What a great subject... this has got to be a good read. But no I am afraid not. I tried really hard, Frances, but had to give up at about page 50 before my brain turned to mush. I found this so shallow and inconsequential that I felt offended at my time wasted on every turn of the page. It's like being stuck in a dentist's waiting room with back issues of House and Gardens magazines. The tone is conceited: she's clearly self absorbed. Shame I wasn't. What worries me is that this is an international best seller. Mmmmmm!
 Constructing a dream March 6, 2006
6 out of 14 found this review helpful
A classic in its genre, this calm and soothing read is a chamomile tonic for a stressed out life. Frances and her partner Ed live a dual life re-building a ruin in Tuscany with work in San Francisco. An enchanting,poetic, beautifully descriptive work written succinctly with intellectual fervour. At times the paragraphs run as richly as brandy butter on the tastiest christmas pudding ever, let the eyes skim and dream of blue skies , rolling hills and tranquilo Italia. As deeply moving as Eh? Is for ants, as inspiring as Driving over lemons, excellent.
 Is it just me, or is this book hard work?! February 11, 2006
9 out of 15 found this review helpful
I found this book really hard going. It was a tremendous effort to keep reading, but I had to give up halfway through. I bought the book because I thought it would be about the restoration of an old house in Tuscany. Okay, there were descriptions here and there, but they were interspersed with too many poetic, lyrical descriptions of lavish feasts laid out by the author for her simpering new friends, or descriptions of the quality of the Tuscan sunlight, ancient architecture and history. I even found the tenses she used annoying, and the tone of the entire book was patronising and self-indulgent. The film starring Diane Lane was much better and more interesting, though of course not true to the book. But, you know what they say - a picture tells a thousand words. I thought the book was so bad that I didn't bother to read the sequel, Bella Tuscany.
A book to make you slow down and count your blessings September 23, 2005
2 out of 5 found this review helpful
I've been listening to a CD version of this book recently, and have been quite charmed by it. The reader's (Barbara Caruso)mellifluous and precise voice coupled with the fairly lavish prose (the write is a poet after all) slow my usually racing mind down to a walking pace, which is good in itself. The writer observes and admires the Italians' ability to live for the moment and enjoy it, and it is clear that she has learned to do this too. Her appreciation of her lovely house and its surroundings, of delicious indigenous food and consequent eating simply, are almost meditations on how the influence of Western urban living has removed us from good ingredients, birdsong, neighbourliness, uncomplicated pleasures. She has made me think again about taking pleasure in cooking for its own sake, and counting my many blessings.
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