Annie Hawes

I enjoy Annie Hawes' books for her honesty, her constant enthusiasm and her interest in people and things and the humour she finds in situations. Annie Hawes travels first in Morocco and then in Algeria with two male friends, who are both crucial and shadowy. Together they accept hospitality from strangers and give glimpses in to a faraway world, where she constantly finds links through stories, myths and gestures to the European world we are familiar with. I learnt a lot from this book and show more although it is quite a dense read it was engaging. show less

Annie Hawes writes well about her life in Italy and is both fun and interesting. She views the life of her Italian relatives with love and on occasion incredulity. Her books do not show a life that is impossibly romantic or a constant trail around cultural and foodie establishments. She writes about people and their stories and life and is all the more enjoyable for this. She takes me straight to the warmth and beauty of southern Italy. Being able to speak Italian and now being part of a show more family she is able to both know what would baffle an English audience and explain some of those inexplicable things or tell her reader what is going on so that you can make your own mind up. For those of us who love Italy and want to understand the culture, this is fantastic. show less

The best of the ex-pat memoirs because of the author's ability to observe and analyze the ways of the local people almost with an anthropologist's eye, yet constantly open to the ridiculous and with a humorous turn of phrase. She seems a person who would be extremely goof company: understanding, intelligent and able to entertain with her goof humored anecdotes.

A delightful book! Not so much a travel narrative as it is a memoir with hints of beginner ethnography. That is precisely why I love this book, incidentally - all the little nuances of Ligurian village and olive farming life are lovingly and humorously shared alongside the author's own 'brutta figura' experiences. The author also shares local perspectives on WWII, the (at the time) possible inclusion of Italy in the EU, Italian Riviera tourists, other Italians, and the start of the soaring show more popularity of all things olive oil.

The only real issue with the book concerns the somewhat odd narrative style, as it is told mostly in the present tense, with foreshadowing, references to the past, and seemingly random side tangents. The book's timing really isn't in a single calendar year, even though she conceptually organizes her story around the theme of her first year... instead, she describes individual months with events from several years' worth of the same month packed in. It all works out though, as her tale is very engrossing and with a bit of thought one can bring it all together. show less