Customer Reviews

A Year in the World: Journeys of A Passionate Traveller

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(16)
2 star:		(19)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

This book really irritated me. I loved Mayes's previous books and was really looking forward to reading this one. The concept, a year of traveling to different locations, seemed like it would be really interesting combined with Mayes' fresh perspectives, enthusiasm for discovery, feisty opinions and poetic descriptions. But somehow it didn't work.

I get the sense that her heart wasn't really in this book. Maybe because the trips were taken over a span of five years, and cobbled together? Or because there's so much `padding' - endless quotes from her own or other people's writing. When she liked the place, her descriptions feel artificially enthusiastic, almost as if the book was paid for by the chamber of commerce. I got tired of reading that she could live there, or could imagine taking her grandson there, or wishes she was born there, or that it's SO much better than San Francisco. Where she doesn't live anymore, and hasn't for years. There are also too many stories about refreshing local characters who think Frances Mayes is the nicest, most tasteful, most interesting person they've ever met. Especially since these people tend to be waiters, cab drivers, rug salesmen or others whose business depends on charming the tourists.

Most of the book consists of sneering at her fellow Americans, or talking about people's personal appearance. This is boring and clichéd - and if you like that kind of thing, Bill Bryson does it better. There's also way too much name dropping (she's always mentioning "my friend so-and-so, the famous ____"). What happened to the ordinary, financially stretched, middle-aged college professor? She seems to be taking on the persona of a celebrity. She doesn't want to be crowded in with a group, doesn't want to associate with ordinary tourist types - now she deserves the VIP treatment. This is definitely a change from her previous books.

I think when it comes right down to it, there's too much Frances Mayes in this book. I thought I liked her, but what I really like is her writing style. It can still be magical - when she gets her ego out of the way. But when she puts herself front and center, she becomes more tedious and pretentious than interesting. Now I'm sorry I read this book, because I'm afraid it will spoil my enjoyment of the earlier ones.

Frances Mayes is a great a writer. I've read "Under the Tuscan Sun" and "Bella Tuscany" three times each and just love them. I had anticipated this new book for months before its release and was so excited to hold it in my hands. I wanted to savor every page. Very quickly, though, I was simply bored and kept falling asleep. Each chapter is divided by destination. To say Frances writes about food is an understatement. Pages and pages are filled with nothing but food and drink. It's tedious after a while. I thought perhaps it was because she was writing about Spain's food and Portugal's food (even hiring someone to teach her to cook the local food). I thought maybe I was only interested in her writing about Italy & that's why I was losing interest. I finally managed to get to the chapter in Sicily. Oh boy. The chapter had Frances writing about two Sicilian authors and reiterating their books for pages and pages, quoting lengthy paragraphs, comparing the two authors. I felt like I was back in college reading a boring essay. So I finally skipped to the chapter on Capri....a vacation dream of mine. Frances complained about other tourists there (as she did in Bella Tuscany). I just don't know if I'll go back and read the chapters on Greece and Ireland.

Gad! Such a looooooong book! This would better be called "A Year (or Maybe 5) in Only Part of the World" since most of the places visited were European. Long-winded and loopy with adjectives, Mayes writes about food, literature, food, art, food, architecture, and food. I'm surprised she and her husband don't roll around the places they visit - they must each weigh a ton or two by now. I did enjoy the descriptions of the crazy Italian traffic HOWEVER I got a wee bit tired of hearing how fantastic European cities are compared to poor little ole' San Francisco. Traffic bad in Portugal? Look at San Francisco! Beggars in Naples? Just look at San Francisco! No place is perfect, and I'd much rather read travel stuff written by someone who has a more balanced prospective.

I couldn't help thinking, as I jumped from chapter to chapter, looking to recapture that melting-in-the-chair feeling from previous books, that Frances Mayes has turned into a cranky, jaded baby. I don't hear her fascination and delight anymore - or at least I don't hear the authenticity. I can imagine she's tired, and that a million obligations come with being so successful. So then, just...stop. Stop writing until you're ready to write and have something you really want to say. I started growing basil in my garden because of your books on Tuscany. The only thing this latest book made me want to do is stop reading.

I think the best travel essay books transcend the logistics of roaming through exotic locations to bring out a strong narrative thread that illuminates themes more resonant than the author's own self-discovery. Author Frances Mayes achieved a universal sense of liberation and self-acceptance with her most famous book, "Under the Tuscan Sun", but despite her immense gift in conveying the images of foreign cultures, she falls a bit short with her latest collection of essays. Timing also works against her as fellow writer Elizabeth Gilbert has recently come out with her own revealing diary of a year traveling abroad with "Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia".

Whereas Gilbert undergoes a cathartic experience that transforms her from an urban-dwelling workaholic, Mayes - having already experienced her own catharsis in refurbishing a 900-year old Tuscan villa - already seems well prepared for the pleasures and hazards of travel and often comes across as a dilettante in the way she and her husband Ed hopscotch the globe in search of a feeling of home all over Europe and the Mediterranean. Giving up the security of their tenured university positions, the couple covers quite a bit of ground, and in fact, each chapter represents a unique locale and consequently an idiosyncratic experience. As if hosting a travel series, they go to museums that range from the world-renowned Prado in Madrid to a Welsh museum filled with over one thousand teapots. In a less adventurous vein than Anthony Bourdain, they also dine on the local cuisine whether it is churros in Sevilla or Sally Lunn bread in the Cotswolds or Ed's constant quest for the perfect espresso. Academics at heart, they immerse themselves into the local literature to ensure they are not ignorant before coming to landmarks of historical or cultural significance.

However, as with Gilbert's book, the best passages in Mayes' book have to do with the local people that she and Ed meet and get to know. Mayes has a particular talent in describing unique characters like the aggressive, multilingual Istanbul rug dealer who sends notes in miniature looms or the Fez tour guide who loves to quote from Joseph Conrad. These are the people that bring the book to life. Frances and Ed, on the other hand, seem like observers, thoughtful tour guides for the upscale traveler. The author seems to be taking a page from Alain de Botton's "The Art of Travel" where he waxes fondly on the multitude of epiphanies brought about by one's own voyaging and mixing the resulting experiences with observations made by the great artists and writers. I just think Mayes doesn't quite elucidate those epiphanies at a meaningful enough level given the hodgepodge approach of their journey.

I had looked forward to this book so much and I was so disappointed. It was incredibly slow moving which puzzled me until I realized that these were a bunch of college lectures hobbled together. She went on and on about food but after reading Julia Child's book the descriptions were flat not exciting. If you want to read someone who appreciates food, read Child not Mayes. I really couldn't stand how she mocked other tourists because, believe it or not, Ms. Mayes you too are a tourist. If I was that cruise company, I'd send her a bill. She also seems to have a major problem with overweight people. It was a catty, boring book. I wished I had read the reviews before I bought it.

Like many of the other reviewers, I enjoyed her Tuscany books. But by the end of this book, I can't stand her anymore. I will never buy or read another of her books. It's a shame, because there is some lovely writing here (the only redeeming factor that allowed me to give this book two stars rather than one), especially about the food and some of the nice people she has met.

But in the end I think she is a self-righteous elitist. What was the final straw is when she was on Capri, and she looked at a group of tourists getting off a boat and thought if there were any Americans she didn't want to know. Ugh. Lady, those are the people who have bought all your books and made you and your weird poet husband Ed gazillionaires.

Speaking of Ed, I couldn't believe it when he was so sick in Morocco and she decided to leave him in the hotel room and go off on a tour of the place. You have got to be kidding me. How uncaring and selfish -- if that were my husband I would be doing whatever I had to do to get him back home and to see that he was comfortable so that he could recover.

I now feel about Frances Mayes the same way I feel about those people I was friends with for years and now no longer speak to or have anything to do with -- I will take some lovely memories of our time together, but it's best in the end if we just part ways.

Frances Mayes, author of Under the Tuscan Sun, did not set out to write a typical travel book with A Year in the World. She wanted to forgo the usual hotel stays and the trekking from one tourist hotspot to the next, and instead aimed to discover, "could I feel at home here? What is home to those around me?"

Renting (mostly luxurious) homes in such places as Fez, Turkey, Italy, Greece, Portugal and Britain, Mayes and her husband set about attempting to truly feel at home in these various locations. While this premise sounds interesting enough, Mayes struggles to convey her experiences to her audience. Her writing seems at times not to wander far from notebook sketches, yet at other moments is full of self-important prose and metaphors so tired I want to pick them up and carry them. And all throughout, she peppers long - and quite unnecessary - quotes from the various books she is reading along with recipes, and descriptions of gardens that go into far too much detail. The result seems disjointed and too clever, and renders the book very difficult to read.

A Year in the World does have some fine moments, such as Mayes' evocative descriptions of local food that reveal her delight at discovering new taste sensations. But mostly I found myself wanting more - such as when she prefers to conjure up imaginative images of historical scenes rather than inform the reader of the often fascinating true history - or I found myself wanting less, as many inclusions in the book seem superfluous. The impression I ended with was not of what it meant to be `at home' in the countries Mayes and her husband visited, but of what is was to have a series of obviously expensive holidays that centered around food, gardens, and literature.

Since Under The Tuscan Sun and Bella Tuscany are two of my favorite books, I purchased A Year In The World, expecting another masterpiece by this fine writer. Her curiousity, imagination, and attention to details other writers may miss, interest me, the ultimate armchair traveller.

I have read the preceding reviews and agree wholeheartedly with them, so I will simply state my overall impression. This is a series of vacations taken by two writers who are serious lovers of art, food, wine, and gardening plus visiting ancient ruins, museums, and reading other books and poetry.

It is a lengthy book with no pictures. I did learn a little more about Portugal, Spain, Greece, Italy, Sicily, and Turkey than previously, as seen thru her eyes. A nice diversion was Scotland and England. The attention to detail is amazing.

For instance, the various types of foods eaten by the locals and the preparation, as well types of flowers, trees, gardens, general scenery, in each vacation spot. Frances Mayes portrays herself as a restless free spirit, a dreamer, a thinker,an energetic individual who focuses on her wants. There is brief mention of her husband Ed who travels with her and of whom more could be written. I view him as a very patient man!

There is some humor (I laughed aloud at her descriptions on a cruise ship). I enjoyed the glimpses into her private life and those of her friends. I felt there was a little too much sameness in several chapters. Perhaps this is because the countries are not really very far apart. Her descriptions are so vivid, I could feel the sun (often over 100 degrees) appreciate the colors of the sea and sky in that part of the world, and enjoy the flowers and gardens, especially in Scotland and England. Of the numerous foods mentioned, the tomatoes, mozzarella, basil and pasta sound best to me!

It is in Italy tho, that Frances and Ed really seem to belong.They appear to love their 900 year old home they restored, and everything about Italy. The next to last chapter was my favorite, reminiscent of Under The Tuscan Sun. The last chapter, concerning future dreams about opening a cafe in Georgia sounds quite grand. Here in the northeast, we do have similar places, perhaps not enough of them tho.

This is a nice book, to be read slowly; impossible to read in one sitting. Let your imagination take you thru the ancient ruins and learn a little more about Alexander and other voices from long ago; then come back to home, the best part of a vacation. Frances Mayes' writings about Tuscany are the best. I hope she writes about her next restoration instead of vacations, or at least, take a vacation in Alaska and give us her take!

Frances Mayes has won the hearts of millions of readers. Her book was far better than the movie. Her writting is exciting. She put Tuscany on the map. What I want to know is what happened to A Year in the World. I see that you can purchase this book used for 66 cents, which cements my opinion of the book. It is the worst book ever written. I purchased the book in 2006, and only read part of it and could not read any more. I picked it up again this month (December 2007) and didn't even get as far. I spent two great weeks in Spain, and see absolutely no parallel of her trip to mine. The vocabulary is pompous. The thoughts are scattered. See page 34-35: It goes from selling pets, bird "lime" stinking, nuns moving, and a long list of Tapas. HUH? Page 37 has thoughts all over the map. It is like the draft of the book got printed without editorial assistance. Swiss Family... then a blind man... poet, flowers, marble... nothing coherent. Passionate Traveler??? HUH? On page 42... way back in the 1940's? How old is the author??? Then the crowning insult. On Page 43 the Spainards ignored them and "that would never happen in Italy" I say to Ed. Nor would it in Spain! This generalization is very narrow minded. As I said, I started this book twice. As I won't get more than 66 cents for it, I guess I'll use it to start the fire in the fireplace. Sorry, but this is the last Mayes book I buy.