Customer Reviews

Hill Towns

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

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.

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."

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!

This book was interesting to read on a rainy day, but it was fairly long-winded and the plot did not end in an inventive or conclusive way.

It's always interesting when you start reading a book and the first three chapters are so different from the rest of the book. The first three chapters start defining the character Cat and her husband Joe, who live in a college town on a mountain and have a "beautiful" life. If the novel had been about Cat's life story or life at this college town, it would have been an entirely different novel, and probably more interesting. There could even have been more of a story about their daughter Lacey who is blind and has traveled all over the world. But instead Cat and Joe end up going to Italy to see two friends get married.

I think the descriptions of Italy are beautiful and fascinating and reading this book really made me want to go there. But most of the characters were not well-developed or that complicated, and since the rest of the book is about their interactions, I found it a little difficult to be that interested. For instance, Cat meets a painter who wants to paint her, but she seems fairly naive about the whole thing. The painter is described as being very rough and macho, and also very sensitive, but it seemed to me that he just wants to get Cat into bed and wasn't very complicated at all. Cat keeps saying that her husband Joe becomes like a stranger, but he wasn't even developed that much before they went to Italy, so it's hard to know. The book seems to lumber on for long periods of time and then ends abruptly and somewhat predictably. A good read, but nothing earth-shattering or life-changing.

The plot of Hill Towns could have been developed into an enjoyable novel, but Ms. Siddons style has come to overshadow her story. The vast majority of her sentences include a cloying and overblown simile or metaphor and sound like they were written for a creative writing assignment titled "Write a story using as many simles and metaphors as you possibly can". Where is the editor of this book? Isn't it his/her job to weed the material?

This was my first Siddons book, and I will try others because, overall, I enjoyed myself while reading which is pretty much my main criteria. :-) However, I thought Cat's husband Joe was a sniveling little weasel. Cat kept saying how great he was, but his behavior as described here was that of a weak little man. Ick. The Yolanda character might have been interesting, but was too much of a caricature. I thought Cat and, especially, Sam, were the most intruiging. Sam turned out to be a REALLY interesting character study by the end, as was the unique relationship he'd worked out with his wife. That was the best part of the book.

I must say I found this book enjoyable, and even though I found the ending to be quite disappointing, I was very happy that Cat and Sam did not DO IT! As with other Siddons novels, the women characters are usually weak in this area. I was disappointed that it was Sam who made the decision not to do so (by passing out) rather than Cat. Having been to Italy several times, I found Siddons' descriptions to be very vivid and realistic! However, for someone having visited Italy for the first time, Cat's knowledge of where she was going was astounding! She knew the names of all the little villages, towns, etc. without consulting her travel guide! Wow, what an accomplishment! She was like a walking/talking guide to Italy! I had trouble with her character in that she was supposed to be so fearful and withdrawn and then she seemed to be a worldly traveler once she hit Italy. There was no real progression. Yes, she had more difficulty in Rome than in Venice, in Venice than in Siena, etc., but I felt that her character change could have been developed in a more progressive manner. I also felt, as another reviewer, that there was way too much drinking in this novel. Yes, the wine is wonderful in Italy and sometimes you do end up having a little too much, but this group WAY over did it! I don't know how they could function through some of the episodes with as much wine as they were supposed to have consumed! But all in all, I enjoyed the theme of the book. Cat facing her fears and the changes in the lives of the characters brought on by this trip were an enjoyable journey. If I could ask Siddons one question, it would be, "Why are the atrocious, shallow men in your novels the ones the women always fall for?" I would like her to write one where a strong male character comes through for the female without overshadowing the female character. I love Siddons style of writing and wish she would address one in this manner, rather than making the women in her novels appear weak and foolish at their first introduction to some raucous male character! Up Island is my favorite so far! Thanks!

If this had been my first Anne Rivers Siddon's novel, I would have never have read any others. I found it terribly boring and the characters not up to par. I would definitely recommend you read Outer Banks, Colony, or Fault Lines, Up Land and The House NExt Door

This is the first book I've read by Siddons and I thoroughly enjoyed her writing and superb skill of putting the reader "there". My husband and I honeymooned in Italy and stayed at the La Fenice - the book brought back nice memories and now I yearn even more to return. Wonderful book!

I enjoyed the book until they went to Italy. The plot line went downhill from there. It seems to me from reading the others reviews, that you have to have been to Italy to enjoy this book. If I had not already purchased another of her books at the same time, I probably would never have read another. However, I am near the end of "Up Island" and have enjoyed it thoroughly...much more character development.