I really enjoyed Women in Sunlight by Frances Mayes the first time when I read it in 2018. This reading almost makes this aerophobe want to visit Tuscany. I'm hungry for Italian food and good wine as I reread it.
Camille and Susan are widows while Julia has left a cheating husband. They first meet on a tour of a retirement village, which they decide is not yet for them. Instead, they embark on an adventure living in a villa in Tuscany and soaking up the local life and its people. Florida-born Kit is a writer who has been living for a dozen years in Tuscany; her home is next door to the three Americans.
The novel recounts the incredible experiences of the three women from North Carolina as they explore what life still has to offer. Kit also embarks on a new awareness as her life changes.
Frances Mayes is such a lovely writer. Kit's chapters are eloquently written -- I think Kit is a portrait of the author -- while the three Americans' chapters are less literary but stil filled with vivid sensory descriptions.
Frances Mayes is best known for her book Under the Tuscan Sun. A retired professor of creative writing at San Francisco State University, where she directed The Poetry Center and chaired the Department of Creative Writing, Mayes now devotes herself full time to writing. She and her husband divide their time between North Carolina and Tuscany.
No comments:
Post a Comment