Women in Sunlight

February 26, 2018
Even fans of Mayes’s Under the Tuscan Sun may have trouble with her latest, a trifle about three American women who impulsively rent a house in Tuscany for a year. They meet while touring a North Carolina retirement community: Camille, 69, and 64-year-old Susan are widows, and Julia is separated from her spouse at 59. Their new neighbors in San Rocco are expats—noted writer Kit and her longtime partner Colin have lived there for a decade. Not every day in Italy is halcyon, but it often feels that way: everyone becomes great friends and the women age like Benjamin Button. Even Kit, unable to have a baby and certainly not trying, gets pregnant. Camille, who was once a promising painter, experiences an artistic renaissance in scenes that are among the book’s most intriguing, but her instant success undercuts their power. Susan and Julia also forge innovative new careers. All the magical light that brightens Mayes’s Tuscany has the effect of canceling the shadows that might fall on her characters in a more realistic or layered story. The effect is a book that feels like a movie, but not an especially memorable one.

When three women of a certain age meet on a tour of a North Carolina retirement village, where none of them wants to live, they form a deep bond and together make the surprising decision to rent a Tuscan villa. Narrator Kimberly Farr's lively performance adds a spark to this story of women's friendships and finding strength and happiness after loss. Her subtle Southern accents for the American women and deft Italian pronunciations help differentiate the characters and provide a sunny atmosphere for this empowering look at getting older. Warning: Farr's flowing, expressive delivery of author Mayes's loving descriptions of Tuscany's sights and smells, food and wine will have you planning your own Italian getaway, or at least a good home-cooked dinner with your closest friends. C.B.L. � AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine