Delightful examination of the life and eccentrics of Surti, Italy from the point of view of the American author living there with his family. Funny, charming. ( )

This is a very, very strange book. I read the entire book trying valiantly to reconcile this book about "Sutri" with the actual town of Sutri (which in fact is accurately pictured on the front cover of my edition). I never succeeded in the attempt, but the cognitive dissonance was interesting. I'll have to look more carefully at Sutri (the town) and see if any of Michael Rips's more bizarre and unbelievable characters are in evidence, but really although they are certainly taciturn people and considered strange even by residents of nearby towns, I doubt they are that far out. Especially after reading the Amazon reviews of his book about Omaha, I'm inclined to believe that most of this book is fiction. That the author (who says he doesn't speak Italian) imagined what the townspeople were saying (or would have said, if anyone spoke to him); or that he somehow managed to understand what people told him, but they were all lying to the strange American. ("You told him WHAT? Hahaha, that guy will believe anything! Wait till he hears what I thought up!") ( )

Interesting book. More a book about the inhabitants of a very small town in Italy than about the author. He describes what it really is like to be an outsider moving into a very secluded little village. ( )

Michael Rips will be on the faculty of the Nebraska Summer Writers' Conference, so we'll be talking about this book with Timothy Schaffert (Nebraska Summer Writers' Conference Director) on BookTalk on 4/23/08. I first read this book on a trip to Italy and since my name used to be Mary Jo Pasquale, the whole experience was dripping with kismet. I thought the stories that he tells were extremely entertaining, and quite authentic (given my limited experience in small Italian towns).

In the Etruscan village of Sutri with his painter wife and new baby, Rips paints an extraordinary picture in tiny, glittering vignettes of life in this ancient town. ( )