Good food. Beautiful scenery. Dreadful writing. That’s Vanilla Beans and Brodo: Real Life in the Hills of Tuscany in a nutshell. In this book, Isabella Dusi, an Australian expat, takes us through a year in Montalcino, the Tuscan town where, at the time of writing, she had lived with her husband for five years.

By writing not about her first years in Tuscany, but about her fifth year, it seems that Dusi was trying to set her book apart from the usual fish-out-of-water expat tales that are so popular. I appreciate that, but in reading this book, I realized that those stories are popular because they are entertaining. The few stories in this book that did entertain me were ones where Dusi wrote about her own cultural awkwardness. But even those stories weren’t well executed.

The main problem is the writing. Dusi’s writing is technically correct, most of the time, but it never rises above being merely perfunctory. There’s little to no sense of passion in her words. Her primary method of expressing passion was to use an exclamation point, whether or not the sentence itself seemed to convey excitement! (!) Her diction is also frequently awkward, almost as if English weren’t her native language. When I encountered passages like, “My eyes and mouth are open to the maximum as Luigi rushes on,” I couldn’t tell if she was trying to use unusual language (instead of , say, “my mouth hangs open, and my eyes are wide”), or if she really doesn’t know how awkward her words sound. I suppose five years of immersion in Italian could affect her English, but in that case, where was her editor?

Many of the positve reviews I've seen seem to come from people who have been to Montalcino, and I can see how reading about a place you’ve been to and loved would be a nice way to relive a good vacation. But if you’re not predisposed to love all things Montalcinese, find yourself another way to experience Tuscany. I can’t recommend this one.

See my complete review at my blog. ( )

Intricate account of village life in Tuscany by a relative newcomer. I enjoyed this book for its description of Italian community life, the obsession with family, food and wine, the eccentric characters. Only 3 stars because it was a little too long. Really worth reading as it made me realise what a lot of us lack in our everyday lives - knowing our neighbours and having that sense of community. ( )

This woman is really not a writer, but at least it's unpretentious. ( )