Spanish Lessons: Beginning a New Life in Spain [Paperback]

Derek Lambert (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 3, 2001

In the shrewd, comical spirit of Peter Mayle and Bill Bryson, Derek Lambert discovers the charms and idiosyncrasies of Spain as he experiences the rewards and frustrations of beginning a new life there. [set as a headline]
As Lambert and his wife set about restoring their moldering casita on Spain’s Mediterranean Costa Blanca and learning to live the life of Spanish villagers, he introduces us to a nation far removed from the matadors, tapas bars, and sangria swillers. He uncovers the “real” Spain–a nation of passionate, eccentric, often contradictory, but always enchanting people. Unpredictable, often hilarious, and animated by colorful characters, Spanish Lessons presents an intimate and delightful portrait of off-the-tourist-track Spain.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

"We were looking for a village so ordinary that it would bring us into contact with people remote from the cliches of Spain--flamenco, sangria and bullfights." British journalist Lambert and his Canadian wife, Diane, find just the right place when they visit La Jara, an unassuming Spanish village inland from the Mediterranean shore of Costa Blanca. This lively memoir recounts their adventures finding their way among the local characters. Much of the book is taken up with anecdotes about how Lambert, Diane and their four-year-old son settle into their new home (a rundown house with a citrus grove and a garden), take on the construction of a timbered dining hall with a minstrel gallery and deal with a sly carpenter, a fey young gardener who argues with his employer about everything from fences to flowers, and a roofer who is afraid of heights. What sets this book apart from others of its genre is the author's way of dealing with his new neighbors, all of whom seem to be related to one another and determined to intimidate him. Although Lambert wants to be accepted, he has a fierce temper, and he gives as good as he gets: he bests the "sewage specialist" who claims he can find a mysterious underground leak, assaults a policeman in the brothel where he and his wife unknowingly spend the night, calls the bluff of a mean debt collector who haunts one of the men working on his house and engineers a public showdown between two feuding ancients who claim to have fought on opposite sides in the Spanish Civil War. Some of Lambert's tales seem a bit tall, but he tells them amusingly in this chronicle of a newcomer's eventful year with the feisty residents of a very ordinary village in Spain. (May)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

London-born Lambert has written more than two dozen novels, many in the crime and espionage genres, and has also authored five volumes of autobiography. His latest effort seeks to re-create events that took place more than 20 years ago when he first moved to Spain. It may just be this distance in time that accounts for the book's lack of sparkle. Lambert's imagery is awkward, as if memory doesn't always serve and everything must then be embroidered with adjectives. When Lambert and his wife, vagabonds in search of the perfect place, choose a small town on Spain's Costa Blanca, their commitment to a trial year begins. They are quickly "adopted" by Emilio, a local with fingers in every pie and relatives in every profession. A suitable house is purchased, their small son arrives from Canada, animals are acquired, the addition of a dining room begins, and a gardener is hired. Despite Lambert's anecdotes, there's an aloofness to his narrative; the people are mere sketches, and the author himself remains an enigma. Jacket copy compares him with Peter Mayle and Bill Bryson, but it's unlikely many readers will agree. For larger travel collections only.
-Janet Ross, Sparks Branch Lib., NV
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 258 pages
• Publisher: Broadway (July 3, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0767904168
• ISBN-13: 978-0767904162
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,852,310 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A very enjoyable, informative read, June 25, 2000

By 

Amy Battis (Beverly, MA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Spanish Lessons: Beginning a New Life in Spain (Hardcover)

I am not a big fan of the travel memoir, of any sort. I read this only because I have become increasingly interested in traveling to Spain and wanted to read something fairly recent which deals with Spanish culture.

I am quite surprised by the previous review. Perhaps I'm a bit more open minded, but I never caught a glimpse of the author's "imperialist attitudes." The only instances that _may_ have been interpreted as such were when Lambert was expressing distrust of locals he had just met...but who wouldn't? One fellow in particular had a habit of either not being fully forthcoming or bending the truth a bit. If this is one of the first people you meet, I would expect that you might be leery as well!

I think one of the strong points of this man's story is that he moved to a country and had to work at adjusting and allowing those around him to adjust to him. He said that they would try leaving in Spain for a year, then weigh out whether they had adapted AND were accepted by the locals. Only then would they decide whether to stay or not. Along the way, Lambert describes the many obstacles and cultural faux pas which he encountered making his dream of living in Spain come true.

By reading this book with an open mind, I think that it is apparent by the outcome of the many subplots (particularly those having to do with Lambert's relationship with the workmen doing the construction and upkeep on the house) that Lambert and his wife were accepted after working at it for a year.

I wholeheartedly recommend this book for those interested in Spanish culture away from the sangria and the flamenco, or those eager to learn more about breaking in to another culture. Very educational.

19 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nice, but no flair, September 6, 2000

By 

Ivy (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Spanish Lessons: Beginning a New Life in Spain (Hardcover)

Something is missing from Spanish Lessons, some kind of energy or heart.

Maybe what's missing is that Derek Lambert is too normal. The very best travel essays and memoirs all have something in common - a narrator who is eccentric, peculiar, a little bit different, whether it's something he does, or just part of his personality. Lambert is just an average guy living in Spain; the crazy things that would happen to Bill Bryson don't happen to him, and the crazy things that Tim Cahill would do aren't done by him.

Or maybe it's something stylistic - Lambert is a fugitive from journalism, and his writing still has that who-what-where-when bluntness, tinged with an all-too-palpable struggle to add some literary flair. That makes this book rather less compelling than it might otherwise be - the narrative just never picks you up and carries you along, and that is essential in travel writing.

It could even be that Lambert just hasn't fallen in love with Spain the way Mayle did with Provence or Mayes did with Tuscany. Spanish Lessons lacks vivid local color and fascinating local history, two things that can really make a living-abroad book. Lambert seems to be reluctant about giving in to Spain, too - he even quits his Spanish lessons after a few weeks. While this kind of restraint may be understandable, it doesn't make for the sort of book that can transport you to a new place.

Probably it's all those things. Lambert has written an essentially normal story - man buys house, man has problems with builders and plumbing, man holds party, etc. - that just happens to be set in Spain, and despite the generous descriptions of food and gardens and colorful local characters, the pedestrian nature of the material comes through.

While this is an interesting light read, and its flaws are minor, it just isn't entrancing. Borrow this book, don't buy it, and look elsewhere for truly hysterical or truly lyrical travel literature.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars a refreshing anti-mayle, August 25, 2000

By 

steve eckelman (austin, texas USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Spanish Lessons: Beginning a New Life in Spain (Hardcover)

i disagree with one of the above reviews which opines that this is similar to mayle's provence series...perhaps the storyline is similar but the attitude is much less egotistical...lambert focuses more on the people and place than did mayle and provides a more genuine rendering of travel and of life abroad than the aforementioned franchise...granted lambert had a better country to work with :)