tani reviewed on
I enjoyed the bits and snatches of information I hadn't known about Italy, and I give the book credit for holding my interest long enough so I actually finished it--which happens less and less frequently these days.
Still, I found it annoying in places, puzzling and "adolescent" in others. For example, there is a brief but torrid scene in which the main character (a 22-year-old man) has sex with a middle-aged woman whose inn he has stayed at for a few days, and then it turns out that she has not had sex for 8 whole years (but she chose *him* to break that record with!) Later, she is terrified that someone in the small community she belongs to will find out about it, so she begs him several times not to tell anyone. Now wouldn't you think that if she would be in such terrible trouble if the news got out, she would not jump into bed with a man until she knew him well enough to be sure he wouldn't tell? I know, I know, you shouldn't be too logical when reading a book of this caliber! In any event, this sex scene is gratuitous and has nothing to do with the plot and has the scent of being in the book only because the publisher or writer wanted to be able to claim it had sex in it.
Another thing that bothers me about the book is that, for all the description of the garden, when Adam finally explains what the its features and the references to ancient myth really mean, it falls flat. The book contains too much that is mere distraction and it would have been better, had it been shorter, IMO.
Still, I found it annoying in places, puzzling and "adolescent" in others. For example, there is a brief but torrid scene in which the main character (a 22-year-old man) has sex with a middle-aged woman whose inn he has stayed at for a few days, and then it turns out that she has not had sex for 8 whole years (but she chose *him* to break that record with!) Later, she is terrified that someone in the small community she belongs to will find out about it, so she begs him several times not to tell anyone. Now wouldn't you think that if she would be in such terrible trouble if the news got out, she would not jump into bed with a man until she knew him well enough to be sure he wouldn't tell? I know, I know, you shouldn't be too logical when reading a book of this caliber! In any event, this sex scene is gratuitous and has nothing to do with the plot and has the scent of being in the book only because the publisher or writer wanted to be able to claim it had sex in it.
Another thing that bothers me about the book is that, for all the description of the garden, when Adam finally explains what the its features and the references to ancient myth really mean, it falls flat. The book contains too much that is mere distraction and it would have been better, had it been shorter, IMO.
