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| Driving Over Lemons: An Optimist in Spain | 
 enlarge | Author: Chris Stewart
Publisher: Vintage
Category: Book
List Price: $13.95
Buy New: $1.40
You Save: $12.55 (90%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  (44 reviews)
Sales Rank: 72190
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 272
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.6
ISBN: 0375709150
Dewey Decimal Number: 946.82
EAN: 9780375709159
ASIN: 0375709150
Publication Date: May 8, 2001
Release Date: May 8, 2001
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Driving Over Lemons is the contagiously entertaining account of one couple's beginning a new life as they turn a rundown peasant farm in southern Spain into a home.
When Chris Stewart first sees El Valero, he's willing to overlook its lack of electricity, running water, or access road. Assured that he's bought "a paradise for pennies," he phones his wife, Ana, still in England, whose enthusiasm is a little more tempered. Together they embark on an undertaking that includes rebuilding the house, feeding and housing a former owner reluctant to leave, the threat of drought (and flood), a cultural misunderstanding, and the creation of a whole new, fulfilling, enviable life
Amazon.com Review
When English sheep shearer Chris Stewart (once a drummer for Genesis) bought an isolated farmhouse in the mountains outside of Granada, Spain, he was fully aware that it didn't have electricity, running water, or access to roads. But he had little idea of the headaches and hilarity that would follow (including scorpions, runaway sheep, and the former owner who won't budge). He also had no idea that his memoir about southern Spain would set a standard for literary travel writing. This rip-roaringly funny book about seeking a place in an earthy community of peasants and shepherds gives a realistic sense of the hassles and rewards of foreign relocation. Part of its allure stems from the absence of rose-colored glasses, mainly Stewart's refusal to merely coo about the piece of heaven he's found or to portray all residents as angels. Stewart's hilarious and beautifully written passages are deep in their honest perceptions of the place and the sometimes xenophobic natives, whose reception of the newcomers ranges from warm to gruff. After reading about struggles with dialects, animal husbandry, droughts, flooding, and such local rituals as pig slaughters and the rebuilding of bridges, you may not wish to live Chris Stewart's life. But you can't help but admire him and his wife, Ana, for digging out a niche in these far-flung mountains, for successfully befriending the denizens, and for so eloquently and comically telling the truth. The rich, vibrant, and unromanticized candor of Driving over Lemons makes it a laudable standout in a genre too often typified by laughable naivete.--Melissa Rossi
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| Customer Reviews: Read 39 more reviews...
 Ready to move to Spain! April 18, 2008
This story provided a wonderful escape as I read it and pictured the valley and the mountains, the river and the sheep...it does a great job of making me want to take on a similar adventure!
 Quirky, disjointed but agreeable September 11, 2007
I found this to be a rather odd book, reading like a series of snapshots of the author's life in rural Andalusia. Stewart spends many pages at the beginning of the book recounting a lot of disagreeable time spent with the man who sold him his Spanish homestead in the province of Granada. It isn't until he has cleared this particular barrier that the story got more interesting for me.
There is some good writing in this journal about living off the land in a country not your own, but the same story has been told countless times by others. (What is it about the English that sends them off to the Continent to live rough so often?) Not sure that there are many revelations here that would drive you to buy this book. Still, it is pleasant reading in many of its parts and if you are interested in things Spanish, this might be a good read for you.
Another gem March 10, 2007
Read every one of Chris Stewart books and will continue to read as long as he keeps on writing.
Does Exactly What It Sets Out to Do May 13, 2006
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
What a pleasure it was to read this book. I just came out of National Poetry Month here on the NH Seacoast -- six weeks (it's expanding in both directions from April) of poetry readings with a festival of jazz and poetry as its centerpiece. I attended, hosted, read at, and otherwise participated in nearly 30 events during this period. When it was over, I needed a break; my brain hurt. At that point, I ran into a bus-driver friend who is also a reader. I asked him what he was reading and he recommended Driving Over Lemons. I usually plan my reading months ahead of time; but this time I bought it on impulse. What a treat. Totally laid back. Exciting but not sensationalist. Interesting but not preachy. A cast of genuinely quirky characters -- thankfully, not a "normal" one among them. And sheep, dogs, herbs, heat, flies. All bisected by a willful river. If you approach this book desiring anything more than something that is a simple pleasure to read, you're doing it a disservice. It certainly got my mind out of poetry long enough for me to regain my balance so I can now go back in fighting.
 Not Provence or Tuscany either May 5, 2006
1 out of 9 found this review helpful
I opened this book with great anticipation because of my previous happy trips to Provence with Peter Mayle and Tuscany with Frances Mayes. Though Stewart's reporting of his experience as an ex-pat living on a rustic farm in Spain is serviceable and may be useful to someone planning a comparable adventure, the book never achieves the transporting quality of the best of this genre. When I closed it (half-way through), I missed enjoying that delicious sense of having made a trip to a new place without leaving my own armchair.
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