Customer Reviews

Extra Virgin: A Young Woman Discovers the Italian Riviera, Where Every Month Is Enchanted

5 star:		(38)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Annie Hayes' view of Italy is far from the dappled, sensuous quality that has defined that "other" book about newcomers (and subsequent converts) to the beauty of Italy. Mayes' books excel in recalling the fabulous foods, landscapes, neighbors and gossamer days of Tuscany. Extra Virgin does that, too, but here's the difference -- Hayes' book goes deeper. She and her sister make mistakes. A lot of them. They don't instantly assimilate. The farmlands of Liguria are a far cry from the rolling and tourist-friendly hills of Tuscany, and the townsfolk, puzzled by these seemingly naive English girls, give them hard-knock lessons on the road to becoming honorary Italians. Whereas the Mayes series focus on the earthly pleasures of Italy, Extra Virgin is about character -- from the social protocol amid the local gentry at the village coffee shop to the laughs the sisters endure when they take another helping of antipasti or primi (shame on them!) Here is an outsider's honest, non-academic attempt to dissect the prejudices between Northern & Southern Italians -- to probe their grudges and prejudices -- and maybe even bend the rules a little (never too much!) Yet the reader never gets the sense that the Italians aren't warm to the author -- on the contrary, despite the occasional playful ridicule they are portrayed as kind, generous, resourceful, rugged, and hardworking. Hayes conveys the idea that Italy and Italian culture can be as foreign and oftentimes preposterous as our own culture appears to us. I'm half Italian and found this book very valuable in showing me the character of my forefathers (and my Italian-American mother!) It also serves as a terrific and necessary guidebook cloaked in a travelogue -- it has the fantasy aspect of moving to Italy, but it's done with a heaping dose of reality. I would recommend Extra Virgin to anyone intending to visit Italy -- to grasp what it means to be fully immersed in things Italian. Haye's recipe? Go with a healthy dose of respect, a lot of humor and keep on hand the odd dash of scepticism wherever necessary. That's Italian!

Don't let the soppy title fool you - Extra Virgin is an excellent memoir of the author's life in small-town Italy. Annie Hawes has created a down-to-earth (and back-to-the-earth) book that, in addition to an excellent description of life in Liguria, gives a close up look at topics we can all relate to: learning to maintain and improve that first house, fitting in to a new place, adjusting to new customs.

Probably the main strength of the book, though, is Hawes' portrait of her adopted home town and its changes through the years. She has lived at least half the year in Diano San Pietro for 20 years; she's become at least as Ligurian as English, while her town has become more modern and continental - but only a bit. Reading about Hawes' transformation, I learned along with her - about the excellent reasons behind some of the strange peasant beliefs, about the culture and society of rural Northern Italy, and about the everyday life of a small Italian town.

In the background are other stories, equally involving: the small gossips, scandals, and events of 20 years in one place. One of Hawes' virtues is to make her neighbors and friends seem real, with real-person traits and flaws, rather than merely colorful characters, especially as time progresses within the book.

The book itself is a pleasant, fun read. Hawes writes with a lot of gentle and mostly self-directed humor, and her style is breezy and light. It's easy to identify with her, also, both because of the style and because of the life she describes; I felt less a spectator and more a sympathizer in her struggles and delights.

All in all, Extra Virgin is one of the most enjoyable and knowledgeable living-in-Italy books I've read to date, and it lacks the self-conscious, overblown prose stylings that have rendered some similar books less engaging. I would recommend this to anyone who loves Italy or travel; it's a book worth reading and owning.

Readers might miss this book solely because of its silly title. "Extra Virgin" has really nothing to do with the story except that olive oil is made in the region. And that ridiculous subtitle--"A Young Woman Discovers the Italian Riviera, Where Every Month Is Enchanted"--suggests the kind of soft-centered, caramel-dipped, high-fructose prose found in Harlequin Romances...

This is not a gooey romance written by a birdbrain but a consistently engaging tale of a young Brit and her sister who take seasonal work harvesting olives in a little-known peasant village in a lesser-known region of Italy--and end up buying a houdse there.

The opening drags a bit. The author struggles with her pose as the bright young thing taking the traditional Brit's view of benighted foreign peasantry. Too pert by half, frankly. But what makes this book work is that the author observes closely, learns, and grows--grows up, too.

She began by thinking of her neighbors as jolly but backward folk who just love to feed people--and keep on feeding them. So typically Italian! Well, she gets over this; she begins to understand that these people actually know a thing or two and even know things she doesn't. As a result her prose calms down and her story moves along pretty briskly. There's humor and passion as she and her neighbors come to terms with each other--and as she increasingly becomes not merely a summer visitor but a person who comes to have some standing as a genuine member of her community.

The change occurs gradually through innumerable small steps (steps too small to mean much if taken out of context in a review) and one large event that can't be discussed because it would give away far too much. Look at it this way: We've had the sugary stuff of "Enchanted April" and the cold and cynical exploitation of "A Year in Provence." Annie Hawes's story is different; it might even be what would happen to you or me.

Over the course of the past couple of years several of my friends have moved to Italy. One is an expat returning to Italy and the other is an american transplant.

Annie Hawes story of her time in Liguria is probably one of the most "real" expats in Italy stories I have ever read. She isn't rich and doesn't have 1/2 a million to pour into creating a showpiece. She buys a ramshackle farm house and to this day its still pretty ramshackle (course if this book hits the best seller list who knows?).

Anne Hawes is living my dream. She writes of her day to day experiences. Some of the same things that she experiences have happened to my friends. I feel like she is doing just what I would do. I'd go exploring broken down houses. If somebody offered me a smoking deal I'd probably buy it and then try to work out how to live there at least part of the year.

Anne Hawes writes with affection and consideration for her friends and neighbors. Her Italy life and her Italy house are built on this foundation of respect and affection. I only hope that when my "Italy life" happens it is half as full as Anne's.

If you're a fan of Peter Mayle, Frances Mayes, and Chris Stewart, add Annie Hawes to your reading list. At first skeptical about the subject ("Not ANOTHER book about moving abroad and fixing up an old house in the country!"), I was immediately enchanted by Hawes's take on it. Her style is closer to Mayle than Mayes, mostly because of her wonderful British wit and turning of a phrase, so Italy is described in a different way; and her rendering of the rural landscape and its inhabitants match Stewart's in detail and affection. Even if you've read a lot of books on Italy and expats living in sunny Mediterranean climes, crack "Extra Virgin". You won't be disappointed!

Many have extolled the virtues of living in Italy, but few have done so with the insouciance and charm of Annie Hawes. Her story of years in a small Ligurian village is pure delight, as sunny as the oil yielded by dappled groves of olive trees lining the area.

Now, an additional delight - the audio version of "Extra Virgin" as read by Miriam Margolyes. This gifted actress has worked with many of Hollywood's top directors, including Martin Scorsese in "The Age Of Innocence." She starred in her own television series, as well as gathering other television credits in various telefilms.

Ms. Margolyes also conquered radio with her stunning rendition of a novel in which she played all members of the British Royal Family.

Her reading of "Extra Virgin" is one more stellar accomplishment, allowing us to revisit the incomparably beautiful Italian Riviera whenever we wish.

This is NOT your typical story about foreigners buying a house and restoring it. Unlike Frances Mayes, who seems to only visit during the summer, these two plucky girls actually live in the rustico all year round, living like a peasant and learning their ways. It almost seems like an anthropological survey.

Hawe's writing is witty and sharp, and spares nothing in the minutiae of their daily life. This is a refreshing change from the typical fare from the genre where everything is bathed in some orange glow, everything is perfect, ripe and bursting with life. Hawes will have none of this shilly-shally, and throws in broken marriages, drugs, Aids and even death, amongst the endless feasting, olive oil, sunshine and beaches. Hawes also writes with surprisingly little emotion, letting little of her own feelings into the book, (unlike the rollercoaster account of Carol Drinkwater in the Olive Farm)
However, some little things, like her excessive use of Capital Letters, and sarcasm gets under your skin.

On the whole, a real-life, satisfying and wholesome read, just like the peasants in the book.

I bought it on a whim, and I can't think of the last time I've been so entertained. I've laughed out loud at numerous points. I'm recommending it all over the place, but am unwilling to lend out my copy as I intend to read it again.

What an enjoyable book -- warm and not too condescending as can be Peter Mayle and others who write this genre.

Initially off to a slow start, I felt, once I was a chapter or two into it I was hooked, and toward the end I didn't want it to end. Now I'm off to the UK version of amazon (amazon.co.uk) to buy the followup by Annie Hawes called Ripe for the Picking, which apparently hasn't been published in the U.S. just yet.

FOLLOWUP: I've now read the sequel, Ripe for the Picking, and I'm happy to report the writing and good humor just gets better and better. Of all the books in this genre of "travel memoir" that I've read, I believe I've enjoyed Extra Virgin and Ripe for the Picking the most. Great humor, an affectionate look at the locals, and a healthy dose of wish fulfillment for us all. Under the Tuscan Sun has nothing on this. Enjoy!

I stumbled across Extra Virgin 3 years ago. I have now bought at least 9 copies and given away 8 as well as recommending it to all and sundry. And sent away to the UK for the sequel.

Ms. Hawes pulls up the timeless Italy that has - and probably will - outlast all change and fads and fashion. My parents spent their early married years stationed on the other coast of Italy, yet when my mother read Extra Virgin, she said she laughed to the point of tears, because it brought back so many memories - right down to Ms. Hawes' dissertation on the various methods of tying a hankie into a headcovering.

But, most importantly, she also avoids the standard "aren't the peasants so quaint" mode - the book is much more about discovering how much smarter those peasant ways are than breakneck modern city life, tasteless tomatoes and rushed meals.

Anyone who can read this and NOT have at least one fantasy about living in an old stone house 2 kilometers along the mule track just past the third hairpin bend - well, they have no adventure, no romance, no idealism in their soul.