An Italian Affair

by Laura Fraser

Hardcover, 2001

Status

Available

Call number

920

Collection

Publication

Pantheon (2001), Edition: 1st, 240 pages

Description

When Laura Fraser's husband leaves her for his high school sweetheart, she takes off, on impulse, for Italy, hoping to leave some of her sadness behind. There, on the island of Ischia, she meets M., an aesthetics professor from Paris with an oversized love of life. What they both assume will be a casual vacation tryst turns into a passionate, transatlantic love affair, as they rendezvous in London, Marrakech, Milan, the Aeolian Islands, and San Francisco. Each encounter is a delirious immersion into place (sumptuous food and wine, dazzling scenery, lush gardens, and vibrant streetscapes) and into each other. And with each experience, Laura brings home not only a lasting sense of pleasure, but a more fully recovered sense of her emotional and sexual self. Written with an observant eye, an open mind, and a delightful sense of humor, An Italian Affair has the irresistible honesty of a story told from and about the heart.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member meimur
I'm going to start off by saying I hate second-person narratives. HATE them. That said, I liked the premise of this book. I enjoyed the rich descriptions of the travel destinations, the foods, and the sights. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who has caught the travel bug! I want to
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go discover Italy now, sadly, the wallet won't allow for it :( For about the first chapter or so, I though I was reading the screenplay of Under The Tuscan Sun....there were quite a few similarities.

I will keep my eye out for more books by Laura Fraser - as long as they aren't second-person narratives. Sorry, it's just a pet peeve, they just kill the escape that novels offer me.
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LibraryThing member bearette24
This is Laura Fraser's dreamy yet practical account of her affair with a married Frenchman, conducted on Italian islands, in Morocco, in San Francisco - basically anywhere they can meet when he has time to get away. I enjoyed it almost as much as her later memoir, All Over the Map. She and the
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professor have a tender yet clear-eyed relationship. There were also many funny travel stories. The only detraction was that it was told in the second person, which I mostly got used to.
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LibraryThing member shelleyraec
1607230 I had to drag myself through most of this book - the main reason was the endless You's. I found it incredibly irritating to have You in almost every sentence.I also failed to find much interest in the affairs of a woman who knowingly - especially after being cheated on - chose to have an
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affair with a married man regardless of what he says the circumstances of his marriage are. I can see the romance in a sweeping translantic kind of way but I really dislike infidelity as a lifestyle choice so couldn't involve myself in the story (particularly with the repetitive YOU)I'd give it 1 and a half stars
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LibraryThing member AngelaLam
Disturbing, but true.

Language

Original language

English

Physical description

240 p.; 8.5 inches

ISBN

0375420657 / 9780375420658

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