Incontinent on the Continent: My Mother, Her Walker, and Our Grand Tour of Italy

I’ve had this book on my TBR stack for a long time now- I was interested in a story about a woman with some disabilities travelling through Europe as I am a traveller with some disabilities...

Well.
I also have some (well one, really) ungrateful snarky child. As, apparently, does the mother in this story.

The author spends the book whining about what a pain it is taking her mother around Italy, how frustrating every thing her mother says and does is, how she wishes over and over again she was alone. She wants to tell her mother things like, “if you’d taken care of yourself when you were younger you wouldn’t be this sick now.” !!!

She complains about almost everything in Italy, whines about the accommodation, the car, the fact show more that no one speaks English- and then about the blandness of the more modern hotels. The trip is in the off season, and she is surprised to find things are closed. She complains about how shops close during the week, blah blah blah. She wants to sit down with her mother and air her grievances. She doesn’t. Instead she hollers about how she hates her mother’s walker and throws it in places.

Writing style is excellent, but I didn’t find her take funny and in fact started to dislike her heartily.

Listen, if you are 40 and you are still blaming your parents for how you turned out, you need to grow up. To take your disabled mother on a trip for which you have prepared NOTHING and then rant about how life isn’t all lollipops is childish in the extreme. show less

Jane Christmas writes poignantly about her relationship with her mother. This book is a mix of memoir and travelogue, reminiscent of Bill Bryson. I was an instant fan from the first page!

I love being an armchair traveler and Jane Christmas has made it a wonderful experience with her rich descriptions of the places and people she visited. I especially like the fact that she does not sugarcoat anything. If an experience was bad, she says it with a touch of self deprecating humor. I laughed many times, especially while they were refueling, with her Mother's witty quips.

The best part of this book, even with her frustration and exasperation with her mother, was the obvious love she felt for her mother. She was not shy to admit the show more difficulties in their relationship. It highlighted the frailty and limitations that comes with age.

I truly enjoyed this book and thank Netgalley and the publisher for giving me the opportunity to read and voluntarily review this book. show less

This is probably funny in English. But already the German title shows that the German translator and/or publisher don't get it. I've read about a quarter, and it's just painful. I checked just a few sentences against the English on Amazon's 'look inside'. The translator gets the substance, but totally misses how it's being said.

von Anneliese geliehen, ganz nett