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Extra Virgin: Amongst the Olive Groves of Liguria (Paragon Softcover Large Print Books) by: Annie Hawes |
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Binding: Paperback EAN: 9780754091394 ISBN: 0754091392 Label: Chivers Large print (Chivers, Windsor, Paragon & C Manufacturer: Chivers Large print (Chivers, Windsor, Paragon & C Number Of Pages: 472 Publication Date: March 01, 2003 Publisher: Chivers Large print (Chivers, Windsor, Paragon & C Studio: Chivers Large print (Chivers, Windsor, Paragon & C Sales Rank: 1385657 Related Items:
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Editorial Review: Amazon.co.uk Review: There is a natural inclination among lovers of the travel journal genre to compare Annie Hawes's Extra Virgin to the idyllic and idiosyncratic tales by Frances Mayes or Peter Mayle. Don't. Her saga has the well-built flow of fiction and self-effacing honesty of a journal. Annie and her sister, Sarah, were in their early 20s when they left London for a 10-week job, pruning roses in the mountainous town of Diano San Pietro in Liguria, Italy. While Sarah is the sensible shadow in the book, it is Annie who falls in love withthe place and then the people and coming up on 20 years lives there still. Youthful mistakes are rectified by a village mystified at the Hawes sisters: mystified that they would want to live in such conditions, that they know so little about olives, wine, food and life and that they are not--horrors--married. Time and time again she is confronted with the reality that is the life of a peasant farmer and in retelling the episodes of her own ignorance, she gives heartfelt flesh and bones to the characters. Still, Hawes deftly drizzles an observer's scepticism about her adventure. "We gloat about the house, the food, the view, everything, whilst pondering the strange fact that if we saw a representation of this sunset on a postcard we wouldn't buy it. We would think it was tasteless." That she centred the story on the early, impressionable days and the gradual intimacy that developed, gives the book an energy that makes it stand apart. Although the final pages jump haphazardly into the present, Hawes's perspective is instructional about the economic and social changes that in 15 years moved the village from the 19th to the 21st century. Like any story with the ring of truth, Extra Virgin is very much a tale that will age well. --Kathleen Buckley Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
 Rating:  - A very pleasant suprisewhat a lovely read this is, nicely suprising & not at all like the usual "year in a foreign country" type stuff. The stories of the Ligurian way of thinking "no swimming in the sea except in the height of summer - this brings on Flu"......"germans who horror of horror drink wine WITHOUT FOOD!!! GASP GASP"...."bottled wine is akin to poison & not even made from grapes".......Its also interesting that this was set many many years ago...before we all ate olive oil/sundried tomatoes/olives/tomatoes on the vine etc etc as a matter of course....funny & laigh out loud...i have since bought her next book & will be enjoying that very soon Rating:  - Impersonal & dullI had hoped for something like an Italian version of the wonderful "Driving over Lemons" but was very disappointed. Annie Hawes impersonal style means that we get to know almost nothing about herself or her sister and therefore their reported interactions with the local Ligurians are one dimensional and rather boring. As she had decided to reveal nothing about herself or her family we don't really care what happens to them. This book is only of minor interest as if you are interested in the ethnology of Ligurian eating habits, which she repeatedly describes, otherwise it is very dull. Avoid. Rating: - wonderful italian talesFanatastic if you love all things italian as I do. Read the series which tells you Annie's life in Italy, falling in love, getting to know the locals Rating: - Fantastic!Just finished "Extra Virgin" as a talking book from my local library and wish that someone had recommended it to me sooner. It is beautifully written, absolutely charming and a joy to read (or listen to.) The tales of the sister's various scrapes along the steep learning curve of "apprentice peasants" had me screaming with laughter. How the initial hostility and suspicion of the locals warmed into curiosity and then lifelong friendship with these strange foreign sisters delighted and moved me. I cannot wait to read all of Annie Hawes books! In fact, I think I will go and buy one now! Rating: - i loved it!!Well, i say i loved it, but i haven't yet finished the book, i am actually 2 chapters from the end. I have to say its one of the few books i have read lately, that i will be truly sorry to finish. Infact, i have gone out and got the next book in the series ('ripe for the picking')! Annie Hawes describes her surroundings with such detail. She describes the people in the village to the point that i can really imagine them. Poor Annie was obviously clueless about many aspects of Italian life when she and her sister bought their house, but Annie isn't afraid to admit it, not to mention all the 'faux pas' they made with language, ettiquette and such like! She doesn't make the story 'twee' at all, and she describes the bad times (like ... Read More: |
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