Customer Reviews

Instructions for Visitors: Life and Love in a French Town

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

Do not buy this book. It's truly dreadful. It seems like the author took a creative writing class (and failed), bought a thesaurus, and threw several thousand phrases together with as many adjectives and adverbs as possible. The prose does not flow at all: it's the same kind of feeling you get when you're being driven in a stick shift car with someone who's never driven one before.

I couldn't get past page 21. I also bought a copy for a friend of mine (we're both Fracophiles and loved Peter Mayle--except his last book, which was terrible). She's more persistent than I am, and even she gave up.

Save your money and look elsewhere.

Mark

This gorgeously-written account of the author's experiences as an ex-pat living in a small French town is hypnotic and stunning in its evocation of place and feeling. The author has an impressionistic style that won't be everyone's cup of tea, but this is powerful writing that delves deep below the surface into the heart and soul of a place and the people who inhabit it. I found it in the travel section, but it breaks all the boundaries of typical travel writing. Not a travelogue, not quite a memoir, the book defies labels. Parts of it are pure poetry. I can't wait to read Stevenson's next work.

I stumbled upon this book at a local bookstore and I loved it! It's a great read for anyone who has ever loved and forced themselves to say goodbye.