Insightful, funny and honest
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I picked this book up when I saw it lying on a friend's coffee table and became absorbed from the first chapter, so much so I was barely able to put it down until it was finished. It is written in a humorous, fluent and self-deprecating style that provides a fascinating insight into life as an ex-pat in a remote foreign farming community. The book's worth is increased for me by it coming across as a very honest account of events naturally brought to life by the characters and their situation. Each chapter is a self-contained episode which keeps the whole thing fresh. I certainly chuckled aloud at one or two sections; the improptu talk given to the Swedish on cattle rearing in England being particularly memorable. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
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Great, easy read.
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I recently read this book, which is a 'sort of sequel' to Driving Over Lemons by Chris Stewart, which I read a year or two ago and really enjoyed. Both of the books are great, they're comprised of a series of events, some stranger than other, that have happened to an 'optimist in Andalucia'. There's nothing complicated about this book, it's just a really easy, enjoyable read about a different style of life. Highly reccomended.
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Great!
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Have to agree with my brother Paul here... very good, but not as good as Driving Over Lemons. My only criticism is that he should have changed the names of everywhere, as I think the Alpujarras are going to be over-run with english now!!!
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Fantastic....
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Chris Stewart has done it again. An enlightening and charming book that you cannot help but warm to. The way he describes his life, even the smallest details will have you engrosed and many times chuckling heartedly . Once you start it you will not put it down! Looking foward to his third book.
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I wonder if Domingo is more on for words now!
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A Parrot in the Pepper Tree continues the Stewart familys' ambitious plan to escape normality in England with a little hot chilli heat in Spain and a new set of social laws, the portrayal of which couldn't have been written better. Chris's manner is light, humourous and intelligent. I could empathise with his story mainly due to my conviction that he really is a hard working sort trying to create a genorous living for his family, and not a 'plastic' author spinning un-truths. This is the essence, when Chris describes the stench of sheep pens I can really smell it, when he describes his uncertainty of the eco-folly but that his sixth sense is pushing him on in the face of family ridicule, I can believe and cheer him on. When Chloe's headmaster demands an immaculate written letter and his wife says that he write it he's supposed to be the writer, I get the feeling that she is being a little harsh, he's only the witer because one of his many plans for making money to support them all happened to work out. The achievment and the great success of the two books is that it is written in such a way that the reader is there with him, and at times with his neighbours, or his family living the dilemmas, like the bridge washed away, or Domingo's relationship with the sculptress whom he effortlessly usurps almost with embarrassment.The reader can leave their real lives for the time it takes to finish the novel and as in Eh? Is For Ants escape to a warmer climate, sat in the shade of an olive tree, eating tasty food, drinking good wine......living the dream.
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