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Title: The Lady in the Palazzo: At Home in Umbria
ISBN: 1565124731
Author:
Marlena de Blasi
Publicate Date: 2006-12-21
Publish: 2006-12-21
List Price: $23.95
Average Customer Rating: 4.5
Format: Hardcover
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $1.25
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $1.25
Amazon Merchant Price: $14.37
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| Customer Review: |
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1: Minority Opinion
I bought this book last month (October 2008), while on my 5th visit to Orvieto. I was hoping for an insightful portrait of Orvieto, a place for which I have enormous regard. Unfortunately, this book is primarily about Ms. De Blasi, not about Orvieto. I find her writing style to be self-consciously florid, almost equivalent to "reading" a Thomas Kinkade painting. I also found somewhat disconcerting her assumption that the reader (I!) should know of her past, i.e., that I should have read her previous books. I also don't care for her somewhat sophomoric philosophizing. I should admit: I am not a fan of this genre, but at least Peter Mayles had a certain ability to evoke a sense of place without making himself the center of the story.
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2: Mediocre writing, but a solid story about Umbria nontheless
When I travel, I enjoy reading novels about the place I'm going to - it adds an extra dimension to all of the new sights and cities. To this end The Lady in the Palazzo was a good book to read about Umbria, with lots of fun anecdotes about the towns and culture of the region. However the writing is run-of-the-mill and at times awkward. For example, in the middle of the book two chapters are devoted to the back stories of the novel's supporting characters. While flashbacks like this can be an interesting literary device, these chapters seemed like they were just randomly and clumsily pasted into the middle of the novel. What's more, the books finale seemed like it was more for the author's benefit than for the readers (I won't spoil it).
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3: The Lady in the Palazzo: At Home in Umbria
A fabulously well written story of their continuing adventures of living in Italy. Her observations of the idiocyncracies of the villages of Tuscany and Umbria are close to the mark and full of humor and "stranger in a strange land" frustration and successes.It is as lovely as her first book about Venice and meeting Fernando, and the recipes are the next thing I will want to try. Marlena gets better and better.
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4: disappointed
I read 1000 Days in Tuscany and found it lovely. This, I thought, was a bore. It felt as though she was just fulfilling the obligation of a trilogy and had to come up with something. Yes, her writing is gorgeous, but she writes of the mundane..no matter it is Umbria.
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5: A Wonderful Book!
Marlena de Blasi's writing just gets better and better. I loved her first two books but found this latest one the best yet. Marlena's beautiful soul really shines through in her uncontrollable need to befriend, nurture and "feed" people in her new home. Francisco still tries to hold her back and keep her within the cultural norms of Italy, but they both seem to have mellowed. Ms. De Blasi portrays wonderful characters and manages to relate something quite profound in the simple tale of finding a new home in Oriveto.
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