- Paperback: 387 pages
- Publisher: Avon A; Reprint edition (Sep 2009)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0061715735
- ISBN-13: 978-0061715730
- Product Dimensions: 20.5 x 13.4 x 2.5 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 727,870 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
A couple traveling through the hill towns of Italy find themselves and learn something about marriage on their journey.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The majority of Anne Rivers Siddons books - of those that I have read - seem to deal with how people cope with the damage and trauma of their own pasts. This book is no exception. Cat Gaillard, the narrator of the story, is a deeply damaged woman. She is born in Tennesee, to an educated father, and the daughter of, frankly, religious fanatics. Due to the appallingly stupid accident that takes her young parents lives, Cat becomes agrophobic. She marries well, but cannot bring herself to leave what she perceives as the safety of the mountain community. It is her daughter's example of courage and independence (won't say any more about that!) that finally pushes her into seeking help. She and her husband accept a friend's invitation to Italy, and there she starts to find her own strengths. And she needs to be strong - because perhaps her husband quite liked the stay-at-home, dependant Cat?
Format:Hardcover
This was a real treat. A great story line, in a colorful and sexy location, kept me turning the pages and enjoying the unfolding adventure. The compelling story was well written, and the wonderful descriptions of the group trip to Italy was what put this book over the top for me. I've read this twice now, and each time, it really resonates with me. I think this one of Anne Siddon's best.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
23 reviews
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
very disappointing book from a usually awesome author
21 Aug 2005
Format:Mass Market Paperback
I wanted so badly to like this book. I recently relished reading Anne River Siddons' The House Next Door, and have thoroughly enjoyed other books she's written. As an Italian-American, I can't resist books that are set in Italy, and reviews have described this book as a travelogue through the hills of Tuscany. I suppose my expectations were very high for an "Under The Tuscan Sun"-like novel written by an author whose style I admire and appreciate.
I picked this book up three times, tried moving onto other reading material and returning to it afterwards, hoping I'd be in a different mindset and could open up to it better, but this novel simply wasn't going to make its way into my heart despite having so much promise.
The two main characters were quite weird, and not very likeable. The book opens in a university town in the mountains of Tennessee, with an agorophobic heroine who won't leave the hill on which she lives. Eventually, with therapy she is able to take a trip to Italy with her husband. The dynamics of these characters and their relationship is too intense. What saves the novel is the luscious settings, which the author succeeds in describing in vivid detail.
Still, I found the book so oppressingly boring that I had to quit reading about 1/2 of the way through, and just skimmed through to the end. The couple had a blind daughter, who was briefly mentioned in the opening chapters - now that's a storyline that should have been developed better. It would have been fascinating to learn how a mother who is afraid to leave her community raises a blind child into a well-rounded, quite normal adult.
All in all, this book was a huge disappointment, although it can't be said that I didn't try my best to appreciate it.
I picked this book up three times, tried moving onto other reading material and returning to it afterwards, hoping I'd be in a different mindset and could open up to it better, but this novel simply wasn't going to make its way into my heart despite having so much promise.
The two main characters were quite weird, and not very likeable. The book opens in a university town in the mountains of Tennessee, with an agorophobic heroine who won't leave the hill on which she lives. Eventually, with therapy she is able to take a trip to Italy with her husband. The dynamics of these characters and their relationship is too intense. What saves the novel is the luscious settings, which the author succeeds in describing in vivid detail.
Still, I found the book so oppressingly boring that I had to quit reading about 1/2 of the way through, and just skimmed through to the end. The couple had a blind daughter, who was briefly mentioned in the opening chapters - now that's a storyline that should have been developed better. It would have been fascinating to learn how a mother who is afraid to leave her community raises a blind child into a well-rounded, quite normal adult.
All in all, this book was a huge disappointment, although it can't be said that I didn't try my best to appreciate it.
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Disappointing
13 Sep 1999
Format:Mass Market Paperback
After reading and loving 4 other Anne Rivers Siddons books I could hardly wait to sit down with this book. It is a 400 page story of a group of people traveling Italy and eating and sightseeing and eating and sightseeing with a little sexual tension thrown in. If this was my first Siddons book I probably would have never bought a second one. It is certainly not in the same league as her book "Up Island."
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Not Siddons's best, alas.
4 Feb 2004
Format:Mass Market Paperback
I agree with what most others say -- not the author's best! I actually liked the parts in Italy much better than the beginning, which I thought went on for WAY too long, with Cat harping on and on about her terrible childhood and her agoraphobia. Boooring. In fact, I considered not continuing with the book after about 50 pages of Idyllic Life On The Mountain and Great Sex With My Husband. But the Italian stuff was interesting.
I haven't read all of her books yet, but Colony is fabulous and so were Downtown and Up Island. Outer Banks was pretty good, too. Interesting how it seems like Siddons's married heroines always stay faithful in the end, no matter how jerky their husbands are and how sexy the competition is. Guess she is really a traditional Southern girl at heart!
I haven't read all of her books yet, but Colony is fabulous and so were Downtown and Up Island. Outer Banks was pretty good, too. Interesting how it seems like Siddons's married heroines always stay faithful in the end, no matter how jerky their husbands are and how sexy the competition is. Guess she is really a traditional Southern girl at heart!
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