Under the Tuscan Sun, by Frances Mayes

Book 19

I was tricked into buying this book.  The ladies at the library all said it was fabulous.  "I saw the movie..." I began.

"It is totally different," they said.  "You must read it, travelling as much as you do."

Under the Tuscan Sun is listed as a "Travel/Memoir".

I recently saw the movie Adaptation, where Nicholas Cage plays a guy trying to write a screenplay for a very popular book that has no plot.  This book also has no plot.  The film adaptation created a story where the narrator flees her real life after her husband leaves her and starts over in Tuscany.  The real story is that a lady and her significant other, who had vacationed in Italy a whole lot, finally decide to buy property.  So I can't blame Hollywood this time.

I feel badly for my lack of enthusiasm because I know it is partly because Under the Tuscan Sun suffers by comparison to Julia Child's My Life in France.  In fact, Frances Mayes even drops the name of Simone Beck, friend and writing partner of Julia Child.

But honestly.  I found it rather dull.