| LifeinItaly.com - Fashion, Travel, News and More. | |  | Travel Books to Umbria | Home » » Marcus of Umbria: What an Italian Dog Taught an American Girl about Love | | | | | | | Description: | | Tired of laboring in city cubicles, Justine van der Leun sublets her studio apartment, leaves her magazine job, and moves to Collelungo, Italy, population: 200. There, in the ancient city center of a historic Umbrian village, she sets up house with the handsome local gardener she met on vacation only weeks earlier. This impulsive decision launches an eye-opening series of misadventures when village life and romance turn out to be radically different from what she had imagined. Love lost with the gardener is found instead with Marcus, an abandoned English pointer that she rescues. With Marcus by her side, Justine discovers the bliss and hardship of living in the countryside: herding sheep, tending to wild horses, picking olives with her adopted Italian family, and trying her best to learn the regional dialect. Not quite up to wild boar hunting, no good at gathering mushrooms, and no mamma when it comes to making pasta, she never quite fits in with the locals who, despite their differences, take her in as one of their own. The result is a rich, comic, and unconventional portrait about learning to live and love in the most unexpected ways.
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• ISBN13: 9781605299600
• Condition: New
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| | | Product Details: | | | Author:
| Justine van der Leun | | Hardcover:
| 224 pages | | Publisher:
| Rodale Books | | Publication Date:
| June 08, 2010 | | Language:
| English | | ISBN:
| 160529960X | | Product Length:
| 8.8 inches | | Product Width:
| 6.0 inches | | Product Height:
| 0.8 inches | | Product Weight:
| 0.85 pounds | | Package Length:
| 8.5 inches | | Package Width:
| 5.5 inches | | Package Height:
| 1.0 inches | | Package Weight:
| 0.85 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 19 reviews |
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| $9.00 | Used
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Thumbs up from fellow dog-loving, American expat in Italy.Aug 31, 2010
Marcus of Umbria: What an Italian Dog Taught an American Girl About Love by Justine van der Leun is about a young American woman who moves to a small, rural village in Italy on a whim and ends up falling in love with a dog.
Does it surprise you that I really, really enjoyed this book?
After becoming smitten with a local Italian ragazzo on vacation, the author packs up her New York City life and transplants herself to Collelungo in Umbria, the Green Heart of Italy. She immediately becomes part of the family, and she is expected to contribute as such. I think it's safe to say this is her first of many culture shocks detailed throughout the book.
As we learn more about Justine's new surroundings and the people playing prominent roles in her daily life, we also get to know the author through how she handles new, challenging situations. The picture isn't always pretty, but it certainly seems honest. Being able to trust the author of a memoir is always a huge plus.
Justine's time in the village wasn't full of leisurely days sipping wine under the Umbrian sun and raucous family gatherings by night, and she pulls no punches on this anti-Under the Tuscan Sun lifestyle she adopts. Her fidanzato isn't the most attentive (although he seems like a good enough guy), his brother has a cruel streak to say the least, and common methods of keeping and training animals are heart-wrenching to animal lovers.
Justine manages to present these tidbits and others in a very matter-of-fact way though, without judgment. It is what it is, if you will, and in many instances, it's been that way for centuries in Collelungo (and other small towns throughout Italy). I can't speak for what the people of Collelungo might think about Justine's perceptions as related in the book, but from my perspective in what seems to be a similar village, they rang fairly accurate.
But through all the ups and downs of life in Collelungo, Justine's growing love for Marcus, an English pointer she rescues, keeps her grounded -- in fact, literally, as she is reluctant to leave town even after her love affair has soured, not knowing what will happen to her beloved pooch. Indeed, the only issue I had with the book is that I would have liked more Marcus!
Witty, descriptive, well-crafted, and just plain entertaining, this book gets four and a half espresso cups out of five; more Marcus would've had my cup runneth-ing over. Marcus of Umbria is more about Justine's year living in rural Italy than simply a girl meets dog tale, but what it does, it does well -- so I highly recommend it.
0 of 1 found the following review helpful:
 No Stomach for this bookAug 28, 2010
I have traveled throughout Italy a great deal and have rented properties in most areas. I am well aware of how Italians in the countryside treat their animals. BUT, I certainly did not enjoy the ongoing chapters where she talked about the killing of lambs, pigs, dogs and every living creature they can get their hands on. Of course, I respect that these people live off the land. If I had known how much this subject was going to be discussed in this book, I would NOT have purchased it. I am an animal lover and this upset me. So, WARNING, if you love animals, this is not a book for you.
0 of 2 found the following review helpful:
 Was not what I expectedAug 22, 2010
The marketing of the book and the content of the book are not in sync. I could not finish reading the book. The author was too negative. The book dragged on and on detailing her dreary life in Italy with frequent abrupt jumps back to details of her life in New York which seemed equally dreary. The dog was a minor character at best.
A vivid portrayal of Italian country lifeAug 19, 2010
Marcus of Umbria, What an Italian Dog Taught an American Woman about Love is a memoir recounting of the author's own experience. Told in first person narrative in novel style, it is the story of a young woman from New York who visits Italy on vacation and falls in love with a handsome Italian gardener named Emanuele. Although she returns home after her vacation, the draw to Italy disturbs her peace. Within a few weeks, she abandons her job and life in New York and returns to Italy to move in her new Italian boyfriend and live with him and his family in Collelungo an Umbrian town of 200 people.
However, building a relationship between two people of vastly different cultures is challenging to say the least. As the author immerses herself into a new Italian life, she faces numerous challenges, makes a realm of good friendships, and finds an unusual true love.
Being first generation Italian Canadian and having travelled to Italy on numerous occasions, what I enjoyed most was that the novel gave a very clear and accurate picture about rural Italian life. The author captured the essence of the culture, the traditional roles of men and women within a family and the bonds that bind them together. She went into wonderful detail about the food, a simpler lifestyle, and the generosity of the Italian villagers. The relationship between rural Italians and their pets was also accurately portrayed in that animals often serve a utilitarian purpose rather than kept as pets.
The author has a nice easy writing style, peppering her prose with poignancy and humour. For the animal lovers or anyone who loves Italy and it's rich culture, this is a wonderful, satisfying story. Because the story arose from the author's direct experiences, the novel was rich and vivid and a true pleasure to read.
The Pendant
The Pendant
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
 Please continue writing, JustineAug 16, 2010
I seriously want Justine van der Leun to be my new best friend. I loved her memoir, I loved Marcus, and I loved her writing. The realness and honesty of her writing really captured the essense of her time in Italy - and it was no "Under the Tuscan Sun" type of adventure.
Sick of living in New York in a dog-eat-dog environment, Justine packs up and moves to Collelungo, Italy after having bedded a hot musician/gardener named Emanuele on her previous vacation to the area. Although not one of their own, she is accepted into the Cruciani family despite being a wacky American with weird tendancies involving food, work, and animal rights.
It is there, on the Cruciani Family's farm that she meets and falls in love with Marcus, a tiny pure-bread English Pointer who is sadly neglectetd and left to live outside in a pen with only sludgy green water to drink. She quickly takes ownership of Marcus, a female dog, and falls in love. It is during this love affair with her new found best friend, that her relationship with Emanuele begins to fade. Justine, knowing that her permanent move back to the US is inevitible, needs to decide what to do with Marcus - the love of her life. Surely, she cannot leave her to be cared for by the Cruciani Family whom she was originally rescued from, but bringing her to the US would be too traumatic for a dog who was so badly neglected that she is terrified of everything and everyone - except Justine.
It is my hope that Justine will follow up this memoir with another. She is truly a gifted story teller, and I found what little I read about her actual life before her Italian Adventure to be incredibly fascinating.
Being a fan of realistic stories about rural Italian life, and being completely in love with my own rescued dog, I highly recommend this book.
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