You lost me from Hello

Book Reviewed: What Happens in Tuscany

Author: T.A. Williams

Recently I was given a gift certificate for doing a Beta reading of the fabulous new book by Lisa Brunette, a friend and author who writes the Dreamslipper books.  It seemed appropriate to use the gift card to further support authors and find a bunch of new things to read from the Amazon eBooks, every expat readers best friend.

Since I love reading books about life, travel, relationships, adventure, etc - but I am not into romance novels - it can be hard to find the right book for me.  What Happens in Tuscany seemed like it might fit the bill and the reviews were decent so I gave it a try.

Although there was nothing egregiously terrible about the book, and I enjoyed many elements of the plot, it failed to hit home.  I couldn't connect with the characters.  Just when I thought there was common ground, they would do something that just seemed, well, out of character.  There was a dissonance that made me feel like I was lost.  Throughout the entire book I just kept thinking, something is wrong.  The two lead female characters didn't act or think like any women I had ever met.  It was like they where copies of a copy.

Having read thousands of books in my life and never having had this experience before, I thought.  What kind of woman writes a book like this?  Who is like, "Hey I was ruffled, nearly sexually assaulted, and photographed nude by a stranger - but that's not a big deal."  Honestly, you don't just toss in an incident like that and treat it like is was a crazy Saturday at the pool. Who thinks like this?  So I google the author.  It was not written by a woman.  It was written by a man.

Cold Snap Out of It

The book "The Long Walk" was one that had a profound affect on my life. My mother read it to us when I was about 4 or 5, when our family of four lived in a 10 x 12 cabin an 8 mile walk from town.

Every night after dinner - during the long winter nights - she sat by the barrel stove, lantern glowing beside her, and read us stories of survival. Outside the temps hung around -20 and the snow was higher than our home. The stories made that little space seem like a castle as I snuggled up to my mum's knee.

In "The Long Walk" I found a thousand steps I didn't know I had, and when my mom and I struggled home from town sometimes, our bodies sinking up to our waists as we fought to pull our bodies through the snow, exhaustion and cold sucking away at our bodies, fear tugging at our hearts - she would lean down and remind me how luckily we were to have such an easy journey, not like those poor folks in "The Long Walk" and I would know we could make it.

Now, I look back and I wonder if she read those stories for us or for herself. I can't imagine the fear she must have felt when she saw us giving up. When my brother and my steps slowed and she knew she couldn't carry us both home.

As a new person in a new land it can be easy to convince oneself that you are persecuted or that your life is hard.  Everyday you must learn and adapt and it can feel like a wall you can't climb.  However, for those of us living in Korea teaching English - even if our apartments are the worst, our bosses most difficult, or our lives isolated - these are not struggles but a privilege.  This is no long walk.

Which is why, when my day is harder than I like, or my attitude turns sour, I whisper to myself, "How lucky am I that my journey is so easy?" And I take that next step forward toward making this life my home.

Want To Read The Long Walk: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1599219751/ref=aw_d_detail?pd=1