Frances Mayes

This month’s book club pick was Frances Mayes’ Under the Tuscan Sun, which natch made me want to go to Italy hasta pronto.

I was a tad skeptical, having seen bits and pieces of the movie and being severely underwhelmed. I wanted to like it; I enjoy Diane Lane as an actress, and how could I not also love a movie set in Italy, with all the food and scenery and handsome Italians in its favor?! However … it was not meant to be.

Thankfully, my initial inclinations about the book were show more unfounded. I honestly found the book to be … enchanting. The descriptions of the house restoration process; the foods; the wines – everything was drool-worthy.

The only aspect of the book I struggled with was Mayes’ description of a tour she and her husband Ed took through small-town Italy. I was overwhelmed with names! dates! wine they bought cases of to take home! It’s a blur – still.

But that didn’t hinder me from highlighting away and dreaming of recipes to try, from the simple pears and Gorgonzola cheese to the high-brow cherries steeped in Chianti. (Can’t wait to try that when cherries are in season here – only a couple months to go! I even bought a cherry pitter from Williams-Sonoma just for that recipe.)

Read it; enjoy; skip over the small-town Italy road trip; and start planning your next European Adventure. I know I am. show less

Frances Mayes' memoir, Under Magnolia, is beautifully written with poetic, minimally structured sentences. One comes away with the full story of her "coming of age"; with the emotional reality stronger than the factual. We learn that her mother and father had a difficult marriage but we feel the tense atmosphere of the house in Georgia. We learn that Frances had many friends at college but we feel their sisterly giddiness as they search for love. We learn that Frances has a difficult show more relationship with her alcoholic mother but we feel the ache of love as she dutifully bathes her and puts her makeup on as her mother descends into dementia. As difficult as it was for Frances to finally break free of her mother, she comes to realize in the closing pages that "her life blossomed into mine." A lovely thought for all of us who struggled to love our beautiful, difficult and vulnerable mothers. If you love stories about eccentric southern families, this is another family you will want to come to know. show less

In Swan, Georgia, it is humid, and everyone knows one another's business. This perfectly captures the feel of the "Old South" that lingers around what I like to call the "cotton aristocracy." (As a southerner, I am allowed to say this without any hint of condescension toward, and only love for, the people that phrase describes!) The characters are complex people that you feel you are gradually coming to know and like. It is a suspenseful story about a family who was torn apart by their show more mother's suicide. When someone digs up the mother's body the family is in for a shock, and their healing can begin. The theme of archaeology, both of historical artifacts, and skeletons in the family closet is explored in a unique way. One gets a real sense of both the South, and Italy, in this book. show less

This book was a terrible disappointment. I generally love Mayes' writing but found her rather insufferable in this selection. Much duller than her other books, it also shows a fairly nasty side of Mayes that I didn't like. Throughout the book she goes on rants about how things aren't up to her standards, leaving rental homes that had already been paid for because of tacky decor or because it was closer to a busy road than she would like. On top of that, and more grating to me was her show more constant berating of other people she encountered. She and Ed would giggle over some woman's choice of attire, this one being so out of fashion, that one looking like a sofa. The descriptions of overweight people was particularly galling. Describing one mother as an "albino hippopotamus" and depicting in detail her rolls and bulges because she dared to wear a white bathing suit in public - how dare she! There was one endearing chapter in which they visit Fez (although Ed was sick throughout this visit so perhaps without an audience to share her Mean Girl giggles with, she's less obnoxious). Unfortunately the Fez chapter was a mere 30 pages of 417. Not nearly enough to save the book from itself. I come away from this one really displeased with the author. I won't be reading more of her work. show less