Italian Days [Paperback]

Barbara Grizzuti Harrison (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 25, 1998

"Italian Days" is one of the richest and most absorbing travel books written--a journey that traverses the Italian peninsula and immerses readers in a culture which provides the reader with a definition of the good life. "Harrison's wonderful journal will make you update your passport and dream of subletting your job, home, etc. . . . "--"Glamour".

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Harrison journeyed to Italy in search of a national ethos as well as her own past. She discovered a great deal about both. " Italian Days does what all really fine travel writing does: it inspires the reader to look at life's possibilities anew," lauded PW . "The writing is superb: eloquent, witty, colorful and lyrical."
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

Barbara Grizzuti Harrison's travel journal is one of the most comprehensive, revealing and interpretive books of its genre. And yet Italian Days does not fit neatly into a category; lyrical, philosophical, anecdotal, it never pretends merely to give guidance or instruction to the traveler. The book is divided into eight chapters, each covering a city or specific region from Milan to Sicily. Barbara Harrison meanders through Italy, sharing her ideas about the people she encounters and all the while thinking- about architecture, religion, politics, food, society, nature, family and history. Her prose is joyful and informed, her descriptions of the people and places quite exhilarating: "The bus went slowly, like a swimmer who loves the water too much to race and challenge it, and the world unfolded like a child's picture book: gardeners turning over the soil with gnarled, patient hands; bronzed youths of Etruscan beauty casually strolling by the roadside as if here were just anywhere and everywhere was beautiful... laughing nuns pushing children on orange swings, their heavy habits floating on magnolia-scented air." This is a book to be read in small bits, so each detail and sentence might be savored, a book to relish whether or not you ever intend to visit Italy. -- For great reviews of books for girls, check out Let's Hear It for the Girls: 375 Great Books for Readers 2-14. -- From 500 Great Books by Women; review by Rebecca Sullivan --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 512 pages
• Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press; 1st Atlantic Monthly Press Pbk. Ed edition (September 25, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0871137275
• ISBN-13: 978-0871137272
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #377,090 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Italian travel narrative written from a woman's perspective, January 10, 2002

By 

suetonius "seutonius" (Phoenix) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Italian Days (Paperback)

Italian Days is one of best travel narratives about Italy that I have read. The anecdotes are interesting and ring true. Her impressions of the famous places she has visited were very similar to my own. Venice, Florence, Rome, the Vatican, Naples and Capri are lovingly described. Capri really is the most beautiful place on Earth.

Harrison writes with a woman's voice that is spontaneous and uninhibited. Unfortunately this sometimes comes across as fatuous. Women are defined by how attractive they are. An octogenarian aristocrat is described as looking to be decades younger. The old lady then goes on to tell a younger women how important it is make a good marriage with a wealthy man. A pretty young friend picks up a stranger she meets on a bridge in Venice; the author is abandoned while her friend goes off for a bout of casual sex. Harrison's attractive young daughter is accosted by men in the streets of Naples. Harrison herself is quite proud that she is still attractive to men at her age (around forty). The men she encounters are clichés. The vast majority are childish sex-crazed brutes with a few lovable little old men thrown in for variety. I don't regard this point of view as a fault but rather a heartfelt putting to paper of the author's own inner dialogue.

Several reviews have commented that the book is poorly edited. This is true. This is not a novel. The book is more a series of essays that all have in common being about places in Italy. The chapters mostly do not flow from one to another. Travel narratives are a curious class of writing in that they need not have a storyline. They assume more knowledge in the reader than would a guidebook. The travel books of Paul Theroux are similarly choppy.

This book had an excerpt in Travelers' Tales Italy which is also an excellent source for many more books about Italy.

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars a lovable but uneven and poorly edited book, August 6, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Italian Days (Paperback)

Too many elipses here--not the ones you use to edit quotations, though there are plenty of those too- but the ones poor writers use as a sort of gesture to ineffability, the elusiveness of some particular moment. They are the written equivalent of a sigh and an outstretched hand grasping at empty air, and just about as sincere. Why didn't her editor cut this and similar crap out and help give some shape to a book that is about 65% brilliant, the sort of bravura performance any writer would envy. I couldn't decide between three or four stars for this book. Perhaps three stars with a fourth one in parentheses might have been best. I have great enthusiasm for Italian Days--its reflectiveness, its lyricism, its humor--but there are long sections that are self-conscious, affected, and just careless (the "scent of oleanders?"--they have no scent--poetic license is a myth, language is at its most evocative when it is most accurate). Subjectivity is dandy in travel writing but it needs, paradoxically, to be presented objectively: I am happy to see Italy through her eyes, but she regularly interrupts some of her best moments not to let us see things as she sees them, but rather to have us watch her while she is watching Italy (or is she just watching herself? sections read like really bad Proust). I love this book enough to wish that it had been much better. I love it enough to give it as a gift and then apologize for my bad taste in loving it. With greater discipline, this could have been just about the equal of any travel book ever written on Italy, a large claim, but a defensible one, and yet as it stands it is just one more good, fun Italy book. Somehow, given the author's talent, that doesn't seem to be enough.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A book to savor and cherish, December 15, 1999

By 

Miles D. Moore (Alexandria, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Italian Days (Paperback)

"Italian Days" is a book for reflective readers--those who love to ponder beautiful language and beautiful things. It is as much a guide to the author, Barbara Grizzuti Harrison, as to Italy, and I gladly could have continued my journey with her for another thousand pages. I made my first trip to Italy this past autumn, and although I knew and loved the book before I left, I was amazed at how accurately she captured the look, smell, feel--and taste (she writes mouth-wateringly of her Italian meals) of the country. I gave this book as a gift this year, and I certainly will do so again.