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Love in Idleness
 
 

Love in Idleness (Hardcover)

by Amanda Craig (Author) "The long wooden shutters of the Casa Luna, bolted against heat and crime, were flung open, and the light of a new day flooded in..." (more)
3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 346 pages
  • Publisher: Little, Brown; First Edition edition (28 Jul 2003)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0316724858
  • ISBN-13: 978-0316724852
  • Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 13.6 x 3.4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 742,295 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #15 in  Books > Fiction > Authors, A-Z > C > Craig, Amanda

Product Description

Review

A Tuscan holiday with four couples plus children which turns into something of a nightmare but ends well. It is all planned carefully, but before the end all have swapped partners and the romantic comedy takes on a feeling of fantasy with the children inevitably involved in what is happening. It is a delightful comedy, which will enhance any summer activity. The author is a well-known journalist and broadcaster who has a wicked sense of humour and a splendid quality of observation for human foibles.


INDEPENDENT – Barbara Trapido

'Carefully plotted, its prose sharp, its characters nicely, sometimes mischievously, observed…both enjoyable and clever'

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The long wooden shutters of the Casa Luna, bolted against heat and crime, were flung open, and the light of a new day flooded in. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews

18 Reviews
5 star:
 (12)
4 star:    (0)
3 star:
 (2)
2 star:
 (1)
1 star:
 (3)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.9 out of 5 stars (18 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Pure enchantment, 8 Aug 2003
Once again, Amanda Craig has woven a spell over this reader! What a truly delightful novel - lighter than In a Dark Wood, but no less funny, wise and beautifully written. Concerning a group of friends and relations who go away for a fortnight to the Casa Luna, where their bored children create mischief, it explores the difference in love, work and generosity between English and American people. The characters are completely believeable, moving in and out of the serious and the comic, and the style is dazzling. A modern version of A Midsummer Night's Dream that never exaggerates its jokes or its sources, Love in Idleness is the ultimate novel to take on vacation. It will make you fall in love with it, just like the "little western flower" used by Oberon. Betty, the mother-in-law from hell, is a creation of genius.
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19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Wow!, 1 Aug 2003
It took me a little while to tumble to the way this is actually a modern version of A Midsummer Night's Dream, but I was hooked right from the start anyway. I love Craig's other books, but for me this is the best and funniest, combining the satirical edge and drama of A Vicious Circle with the magical insights into the world of childhood of In a Dark Wood. Eight adults and three children spend a fortnight on holiday together in a rented Tuscan house, owned by one Bill Shade,(you only spot who he is right at the end) and it all goes hideously and hilariously wrong. The hostess Polly spends all her holiday cooking and cleaning while her foul husband Theo lies in bed longing to return to work and being encouraged by his mother Betty (the moment you hear her face is permanently frozen by Botox you know who to hate.) Polly's best friends Hemani and Ellen both fancy Theo's younger brother Daniel but then there is Ivo Sponge (from A Vicious Circle) to stir things up, even before the three children make a love potion - with Viagra - to give to their annoying relations. There aren't any dirty bits, and you could give it to your granny, yet the climax is dripping with sexual passion.
It's beautifully-written, so that you can almost see, smell and hear the Tuscan countryside, and wise about people and love and literature so that you forgive Craig for choosing to write about spoilt, upper middle-class people. The hell of going on holiday with kids and friends is a universal one. Reading it was like going on holiday myself, and yet it's much deeper and more literary than the usual feel-good beach-read. The perfect choice for book-groups, Shakespeare-lovers, chick-lit readers and people who just want a great story. I'm going to read it all over again as soon as my bloke has finished it. I LOVE IT!!
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars first-rate comedy, worthy of PG Wodehouse, 24 Dec 2003
I bought this as a Christmas present for my partner, and thought I'd just read a chapter first. I then had to lock myself away to read the rest. I can't see how anyone could dislike such a charming novel (except those envious of Craig's prodigious talent). Yes, the characters are all middle-class Americans and Brits - but aren't they in most fiction? That doesn't make them smug, as someone has claimed - in fact, at several points I wanted to kick Polly, the self-sacrificing wife and mother, in the pants for being so depressed, or did until the real reasons for it were revealed.
As other reviewers have said, the novel is a version of A Midsummer Night's Dream, with the rude mechanicals left out (a pity - I was looking forward to some extra comedy there). Apart from switching the sex of all Shakespeare's characters (it is the women who pursue the men, for instance)its real touch of brilliance lies in making the three children, bored silly by holidaying in Tuscany, into the fairies. The clash between the children's world and the adults is beautifully described, but underneath it the novel asks questions about the imagination and its freedom to upset daily life, and about the choices people make when in love that are serious and worth asking. I didn't think British writers wrote novels as satisfying and intelligently witty as this any more.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars Tedious read
I found this book truly awful.
The characters are one dimensional, the plot is unbelievable and awful. the dialogue is dreadful. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Ally Bally G

5.0 out of 5 stars completely delicious, unexpected rom-com
I'm intrigued by the very different readers' reviews this novel has gained. Not having read any of Craig's previous books, I have ot say that this one made me immediately buy the... Read more
Published on 20 Aug 2004

5.0 out of 5 stars A Beautifully Composed and Magical Escape
A group of American and British people on holiday travel to the idyllic Italian setting of Casa Luna, Cortona for a fortnight and find that their expectations about what will... Read more
Published on 31 Jul 2004 by Eric Anderson

5.0 out of 5 stars Like eating a box of chocolates
I found reading this book a real treat - like eating a box of chocolates - you just have to sink into it and let the story carry you away. Read more
Published on 30 Jul 2004 by Amy Smith

3.0 out of 5 stars Lovely countryside, less appealing characters
This book seems to lie uneasily between chick-lit and travelogue, with the travelogue side winning - it certainly made me want to visit the area described, but the characters... Read more
Published on 21 Jul 2004

5.0 out of 5 stars Ivo Sponge is back!
If you haven't read A Vicious Circle then you probably won't understand the thrill of encountering this irresistibly awful man again. Read more
Published on 18 Jun 2004 by amy17148

3.0 out of 5 stars Lacked something!
A beautiful portrayal of the Tuscan countrside.
The story was quite enchanting, but lacked something. Read more
Published on 2 Jun 2004

5.0 out of 5 stars enchanting fable
Anyone who has visited the town of Cortona, Italy, will feel it deserves something better than Frances Mayes's saccharine best-seller, Under the Tuscan Sun. Read more
Published on 10 May 2004 by acarponi

5.0 out of 5 stars outstanding romantic comedy
It's been a long time since I've enjoyed a novel as much as I did this one. It takes a simple idea - the holiday from hell, shared with family and friends - and gives it a fresh... Read more
Published on 10 Jan 2004 by rubypalmer

2.0 out of 5 stars Frustrating Read
I was recommended this book by a friend who said it was highly rated by her book club, but I must say I couldn't see why they thought so. Read more
Published on 17 Dec 2003

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