Foot and Fire

Under the Tuscan Sun is set in Cortona, Italy where the American author Frances Mayes bought a house and narrated her experiences in settling in an Italian Village where Etruscan civilization once flourished. She shuttled back and forth in US and Italy and made homes in two continents. Please see my book review here. It happened in Italy is a storytelling by an Italian-American author Elizabeth Bettina who learned that her grandmother's hometown in Italy called Campagna had been an internment camp of a number of Jews during the holocaust. No one seems to perpetuate stories on Jews in Italy because they have a happy story of survival unlike those that happened in camps where dancing with death were told over and over. Please see my review here. *** I had said my piece for the two books and authors in my respective review of the books but a desire to bring both of them under one review is strong that I have to write it down and blow it away from my consciou...

It happened in Italy by Elizabeth Bettina Softbound, 331 pages (appendices not included) 2009, Non-fiction/History I once posted in my status message that I almost gave up on this book after two chapters. Actually, I read the preface and the Introduction which are five pages only. I said so because the preface and the introduction did not set the mood of the book but only spoiled it because I felt the exultation to goodness was overrated.  So, I recommend that one should go to Chapter I right away. From Chapter 1 up to 53 plus the epilogue and afterword as well as some appendices, I was swayed by the book. I could not believe myself being hooked in the storytelling which does not involve conflict and so much suspense. The story teller is alive in every page. Author Bettina has the vitality in her story telling. Her otherwise boring and simple topic became alive in every page. She made the reader part of the journey on how she first discovered the fact that her gr...