The Smiles of Rome: A Literary Companion for Readers and Travelers by Susan Cahill

The Smiles of Rome: A Literary Companion for Readers and Travelers Reviews

• 
  Barbara

  makes me ready to return to Rome.
• 
  Wendell

  Though The Smiles of Rome is one of those books that are classically recommended to travelers to Italy, especially first-time travelers, it struck me as a colossal bore. What becomes obvious is that Cahill made her selections less on literary merit and more on their ability to lend themselves to an itinerary or the frequency with which they mentioned churches, bridges, museums, or other monuments that Cahill wanted to highlight. The result is that the writing is extremely uneven when it isn’t utterly obscure (Freud’s essay on the Moses of Michelangelo is just plain odd, while Browning’s and Vittoria Colonna’s poetry, along with Michelangelo’s sonnets, is just plain dull). Other selections are eccentric and bad-fitting (excerpts from Morante’s History, a few of Peter’s Letters to the Romans, and a strange little interview with Fellini about La Dolce Vita are examples of pieces whose unease in this context is palpable), giving the sense of having been smacked into place with blows of a hammer rather than gentled into the book because of their beauty or appropriateness. Eleanor Clark’s piece on the Protestant Cemetery is readable only because its subject matter is so interesting, though the truth of the matter is that her baffling thickets of clauses and qualifiers are utterly maddening; Updike’s contribution is a genuine nullity, though he is far from the only writer to be included here for his name rather than for the quality or intrinsic interest of the writing that Cahill anthologizes. As a practical matter, The Smiles of Rome was published more than four years ago and its advice about restaurants or museum hours is no longer useful; browse the book in the library for the walking tours at the end of each chapter or cadge its bibliography, but spend your money on another book about Rome.
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  Jaleh Rose

  I studied abroad in Rome and this book was part of the required reading for the writing class. The book overall struck me as disjointed. All the essays are about Rome, but it can be jarring jumping from one story to the next since this collection includes everything from a excerpt from a novel written in the point of view of Hadrian to an interview with Federico Fellini. The suggestions at the stories are often longer than the stories themselves, and, in my opinion, are not very good ones. I did not read all of this book, but I did read a good chunk of the stories for class, and I did not find any of them interesting. Fellini's interview seemed out of place, Eleanor Clark's musings on the cemetary where Keats is buried is just odd and hard to follow, and Alice Steinbach's dislike for Rome and the subsequent situation she ends up in only led me to wonder about how someone could be so annoying and stupid after having traveled around Europe before ending up in Rome. This was not a good collection of stories.
• 
  Jordyne

  Great literary compilation of essays, excerpts, reflections on Rome. Includes writings on Ancient, Renaissance and Baroque, Grand Tour period. Favorites: John Updike's Twin Beds in Rome, Muriel Spark's My Rome, Alice Steinbach's Piazza di Spagna.
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  Mary Step

  A beautiful book, incredible preparation and companion on a trip to Rome.
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  Cheryl

  Good ideas for places to visit in Rome.