The real genius here, though, is in the scope. She's constantly delighted with new discoveries, and she shares them in such a way that you can share them, too. Plenty of "place writing" does a disservice to the locations it tries to praise, but Mayes isn't just in love with Tuscany, she's also an astonishingly good writer, and she's sensitive to the fact that she is an outsider and therefore writes as one who does not "know" the culture. The writing is poetically beautiful, illuminating a place that is equally so. Regardless, don't let the naysayers dissuade you from giving it a try. I've had three people now (all men =p) tell me it's "chicklit." First of all, is that supposed to be an insult? Second: What? Perhaps this all has something to do with how popular the book was and continues to be. I hear a lot of crap about how this book is silly, fluffy, boring, slow, unstructured, unserious.
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