Incontinent on the Continent

September 15, 2009
Christmas, a Canadian travel writer, tends to mix travelogue with humor. Her latest book recounts her trip to Italy with her aging mother, whose offbeat temperament, not to mention her unique medical requirements, presented enormous challenges. Why did she sign on for a lengthy Italian vacation with a woman who could barely move without mechanical aid and with whom she had a seriously strained relationship? Well, her father, on his deathbed, instructed Christmas to make friends with her mother, who was nearing the end of her own life. With such emotional baggage, youd think the book might be a serious, weighty affair, but its not at all. Christmas writes with a light touch, painting the people and places of Italy with broad, colorful strokes, and her costar, her curmudgeonly mother, is a pure delight (although we cant help wondering, from time to time, whether shes been lightly fictionalized for the sake of the story). Armchair travelers will thoroughly enjoy both the travel elements of the account as well as the entertaining and tender mother-daughter story.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)