Living in a Foreign Language: A Memoir of Food, Wine, and Love in Italy by Michael Tucker

Living in a Foreign Language: A Memoir of Food, Wine, and Love in Italy Reviews

• 
  Kim

  Reads like diary entries from a very lucky person: "Today we met more fabulous talented fun people who took an instant liking to us as well, and we all got drunk and danced around the kitchen. Today our best friend (did we mention in the last 5 pages that she's Korean?) said we were the most fun people she'd ever met. Today we bought the cutest house (they weren't even going to sell it at all, but of course once they met us they fell in love with us and are now our best friends). Today we almost missed our plane, but we made instant friends with everyone at the airport and they helped us get onto our plane. Today we ate at this great little restaurant and now the owners are our BFF's. Today we found the most delicious food in the entire world and washed it down with a bottle of grappa - isn't Italy great? My wife and I are totally in love after all these years, and we have sex a lot. Our kids have great careers and came to visit us at our new Italian retreat this week." etc. etc.
  
  While I love Italy, and especially books about ex-pats moving there and trying to start a life, there wasn't any struggle - the authors find a nice house, pay someone else to renovate it (their biggest struggle with home renovations seems to be choosing which beautiful tiles they want to use), and make a close circle of friends almost immediately, and then spend all their time eating fantastic food. Their only obstacles to overcome seem to be how to pay for this fabulous life (I am sure it was more difficult to figure out in real life, but it's kind of glossed over in the book); they're not instantly fluent in Italian; they're gaining weight from all that fantastic food (which leads to a small anecdote about joining a gym, and then is never mentioned again); and the ongoing quest to find the best [insert meat product here]. The hurt feelings of friends they've left behind over the years, when switching cities or countries, is given a very few sentences in the last chapter.
  
  I never watched "L.A. Law" and have no idea who these people are, so reading about their lives and careers wasn't very interesting to me. I'm glad they have a nice life, and maybe I'm a bit jealous - I'd love to be able to live part time in Italy. I'd love to be the someone who sees a group of strangers dancing in a field and immediately runs down to join - uninvited - in the dancing. But hey, I'm happy for them, and maybe I can learn a lesson from this about becoming more uninhibited and more open to new adventures and experiences.
• 
  Historical Fiction

  I envisioned the story of a couple wholly immersing themselves in another culture when I first discovered Living in a Foreign Language: A Memoir of Food, Wine, and Love in Italy, but my expectations proved a little off target. This is the story of a complete snob who loves food, an uninspiring self-congratulatory foray into the life of Michael Tucker.
  
  The book rubbed me wrong from the start. “The lobby was empty, too. Of celebrities, that is. There were other people – regular people – but you can’t imagine how easy it is to tell the difference.” Maybe I don’t get his sense of humor, but he reads like a high bow jerk, begging for sympathy over the cancellation of L.A. Law and the ‘traumatic’ change of circumstance that forced him to sell his retirement property in Big Sur. I'm sorry, but I live in the real world and don’t have much compassion for a man whining over a situation that allowed him to purchase and renovate a second home in a foreign country.
  
  Tucker goes on to describe all the marvelous dishes he samples, occasionally offering up a small anecdote about the wine, but his brief departures into regional history are lifeless and dull. He does say some extremely flattering things about his friends, mostly expats who read as privileged and arrogant as he does himself, but it bothered me that Tucker didn’t have much to say about Italians or their culture.
  
  Pardon me, but there wasn’t enough Italy in the book, just a lot of fluff about Tucker and his friends, people who are no more Italian than he is. If you are going to ‘live in a foreign language’ you should embrace it wholeheartedly, but the only aspect Tucker seems to appreciate is the cuisine. That being the case, perhaps he should consider writing a cook book. Compile the recipes, add the commentary and call it a day.
• 
  Vesta Vitkutė

  Pripažįstu, skamba gana banaliai ir „saldžiai“ kaip koks meilės romanas. O čia, pasirodo, memuarai! Knyga patiko, ypač Italijos aprašymas. Panašu, kad šioje šalyje jiems labai svarbu išsaugoti savo kultūrą, šeimos ūkius. Italijoje svarbus maisto paruošimas, tam tikros jo vartojimo taisyklės. Pavyzdžiui, geriau negerti latte kavos, kol dar dešimta ryto, tuo metu geriau pasirinkti ekspreso kavą. Ledus valgyti rekomenduojama ketvirtą valandą po pietų, o vakarienę – anksčiausiai devintą valandą vakaro.
  Be to, man šiuose memuaruose gražūs namų, gamtos aprašymai. Alyvmedžiai, slyvos, žaluma, jaukūs pasisėdėjimai kieme. Kaip romantiška, gražu ir ramu! Visa tai kviečia vieną dieną aplankyti Italiją. Tačiau ne tik turistų vis mindomą Romą, bet ir mažuosius Italijos kaimus, kur žmonės yra išsaugoję senąsias tradicijas bei savitumą. Taigi, bella Italia! 🍕🍕🍕
  
• 
  Margaret

  A lovely and delightfully written mini-memoir by actor Michael Tucker (remember him from L.A. LAW?) about his impulsive purchase of a 350 year old worker's cottage in Umbria and the year that followed. Fortunately, this is not one of those stories that bog down in the details of construction, coping with ancient plumbing, and finding the perfect iron gate. Instead, it focuses on Tucker's affinity for the place more or less as it is, his appreciation of its history, and his newcomer's delight in the food, friends and festivals he discovers in his new "neighborhood." But it's also a sidelong love letter to his wife Jill Eikenberry (remember her also? from LA LAW?), with whom he is unabashedly, ridiculously and beautifully still besotted after thirty-some years of marriage. Tucker is a small, rather round guy who looks somewhat like Winnie the Pooh, Eikenberry a tall patrician WASP beauty, and every story he tells about her, every quote he quotes, is suffused after decades together with the dazed, astonished joy of the A/V geek who still can't quite believe the prom queen chose him. A quick, heartwarming read that will make you feel good all week, both a gentle reminder of the way the simplest things actually offer the greatest pleasures, and a confirmation that the most impulsive choice can sometimes be the most rewarding one.
• 
  JoAnn/QuAppelle

  This book was fantastic. Having spent time in Italy, I found that Tucker painted a wonderfully fleshed-out picture of living there. I cannot even count how many people I recommended this book to, who also loved it.
  
  I loved Tucker's humor and his take on living in Italy and the way he related to his wife and friends. I want to be their friend!!!!!
  
  Highly recommended--- and I want to read more. I wish he kept a blog. As soon as I closed the book, I started to miss this couple.
• 
  Mariia Manko

  I find this book exciting especially for vocation! It is about enjoying the life, and the way it is. We have to enjoy the life with all it imperfections. We have to be flexible and open-minded. The only paradise is in side you, the way you feel. Don't forget it.
  For sure I enjoyed reading about Italy. I just love its lifestyle.
• 
  Melissa

  Normally I get irritated with name dropping and the ability to traipse around the world without a care about the cost, but having recently returned from 12 days eating and drinking our way through Italy, I was so happy to read something similar to the food and wine we enjoyed while there. Maybe one day I'll have a little vacation home with an olive grove!
  
  "The actor Michael Tucker and his wife, the actress Jill Eikenberry, having sent their last child off to college, were vacationing in Italy when they happened upon a small cottage nestled in the Umbrian countryside. The three-hundred-fifty-year-old rustico sat perched on a hill in the verdant Spoleto valley amid an olive grove and fruit trees of every kind. For the Tuckers, it was literally love at first sight, and the couple purchased the house without testing the water pressure or checking for signs of termites. Shedding the vestiges of their American life, Michael and Jill endeavored to learn the language, understand the nuances of Italian culture, and build a home in this new chapter of their lives."
• 
  Jen Fumarolo

  I aspire to this kind of relocation and immersion in the culture and countryside of a gorgeous Italian hill town. This was pretty delightful and Michael Tucker writes so easily and comfortably, it was just a tasty little page turner.
• 
  Toma Beržonskienė

  Taip ir nesupratau, tai nusipirko jie tą namą ir vėl pardavė ar ne? Perdaug itališkų žodžių, kalbų apie maistą, per daug panašių žmonių vardų - Džilė, Džoana, Džojus... Nuskrenda į Niujorką, kitoj pastraipoj jau parskrenda. Toks vaizdas, kad visą knygą jie tik valgė skirtinguose itališkuose restoranuose makaronus ir viskas. Nu neįdomu. O taip laukiau tos knygos.
  Knygos aprašyme parašyta, kad pagrindinis veikėjas kilęs iš Lietuvos žydų šeimos ir toks pat vienas vienintelis sakinys yra knygoje. Viskas. Matyt kiekvienai šaliai prirašo tokį prierašą, kad pritraukt skaitytojų. Pritraukt tai pritraukė, bet nesužavėjo.
• 
  Meg

  This book seemed like my jam...living abroad, food...trying to assimilate in a second culture. Yay! I had this book on my to read list for awhile--- and this is the year of getting stuff OFF, so....no time like tracking it down as now.
  First disclaimer: I had never heard of Michael Tucker (the actor) before....though he seems to think I should have.
  Second disclaimer: I often get annoyed with Americans living abroad and dissing a culture they are forcing their way into. (Yea, I am not sure why I read travel memoirs either...sigh.)
  I am hesitant to say this book was great--- but it was definitely enjoyable and fun. Once Tucker and his wife actually settled into a space in Umbria, Italy and I got used to his snobbiness....I read and enjoyed his meals, but I have to say....the first 50 pages I was rolling his eyes with all his name dropping and his insulting of the "regular people". He hints often about how famous he is--- and how other fawn over him and his wife....and ya da ya da, get over yourself. I would love to be able to buy and sell real estate as quickly as he does---while in the same chapter complain about how little money I have for the lifestyle I live....but that's the negative! The positive is the reader gets to pretend to live in Umbria and pretend it is that easy to buy real estate in a foreign language, get a visa--- and eat all the food. And....he eats a lot.
  Read if you enjoy a travel (more of a explanation of ONE place) memoir....while also hearing all about how fabulous a little known actor is....
• 
  Pam

  This book was enchanting right from the start. Michael Tucker has a wonderful sense of humor and at times, his quick wit will have you laughing out loud. Reading this book makes you want to take the plunge and buy a home in a foreign land just for the experience of living and loving abroad. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and didn't want it to end.
• 
  Anne

  I enjoyed living through Michael Tucker while reading this book. I have never been to Italy and it has been high up on my "must do" list, but I felt like I was seeing their home and the dinners they made as if I was a guest.
• 
  Barbara Mader

  I picked this up at the library just because it was set in Italy, but frankly didn't expect much. I enjoyed it, though, found the writing natural and sometimes funny and I learned some quirky things about Italy. It was a good vacation read.
  
• 
  Ye Jin

  Reading this book makes you want to follow in their footsteps and take it one step further to become expats. What a wonderful description of the Umbria region of Italy as well as a descriptive collection of the regional food they enjoyed.
• 
  Diane Haegele

  Average writing (I kept thinking that I could write a book such as this if I had spent a month in another country) Self-congratulatory, self-promotional, self,self,self!!!
  Other than names of small villages in Umbria, which might be nice to visit), there was little of value....
• 
  Lynn

  Fun little romp with Michael Tucker in Umbria. Descriptions of food and drink were mouthwatering.
• 
  Jane

  Delightful story of two Americans learning to live and eat in a foreign country!
• 
  M

  ---- kind of sick of the "I bought a house in Italy and gained a new appreciation of life/food/love" genre --- and yet I can't resist it.
• 
  Melissa (Way Behind Again!)

  Parts about food and living in Italy interesting. Otherwise very liberal, new agey, and name drops a bunch of people in the author's circle that mean nothing to the reader.
• 
  Becky

  Cute Book! Anyone who loves to eat and travel will like this book.
• 
  Susan Johnson

  Truly light reading but great fun especially if you have spent time in Italy. Tucker is touching in his descriptions of his life with Jill...Would love to visit their little stone house in Umbria!