Driving Over Lemons: Summary and book reviews of Driving Over Lemons by Chris Stewart, plus links to an excerpt from Driving Over Lemons and a biography of Chris Stewart.
Driving Over Lemons An Optimist in Andalucia
by Chris Stewart
Hardcover: Mar 2000,
256 pages.
Paperback: May 2001,
256 pages.
A funny, generous, wonderfully written account of an family making a life and home in remote but enchanting southern Spain.
At seventeen, Chris Stewart, the first drummer for the rock group Genesis, left the band and launched a career that included stints as a sailor, a sheep shearer, and a travel writer. And he has no regrets.
If he'd become a rock star, he might never have moved with his wife, Ana, to El Valero, a mountain farm in Andalucía, Spain, studded with olive, almond, and lemon groves -- but with no access road, water supply, or electricity. He might never have forged the friendship of a lifetime with his resourceful neighbor Domingo. He might never have had the adventures that resulted in both hilarious disasters and blissful serendipity. He might never have experienced the satisfying complexity of a simple life lived in one of Europe's most beautiful regions, among peasants, farmers, ex-pats, New Age travelers, and a growing family, or come to understand a place and its people with such depth and affection. And certainly Stewart, the eternal optimist, would never have written this delectable book and made us his utterly captivated audience.
Kirkus Reviews
A delightful British bestseller ...while genuinely humorous and ultimately light in tone, this vivid, assured debut presents substantial questions about the endurance of rural, agrarian traditions in the face of a supposedly seductive postmodern, wired mass culture.
The Daily Mail (UK)
Funny, affectionate, no hint of patronage, a true portrait of people and place.... Tuck it into your holiday luggage and dream.
The Daily Mail (UK)
Funny, affectionate, no hint of patronage, a true portrait of people and place.... Tuck it into your holiday luggage and dream.
Peter Mayle
A wonderful antidote to...modern electronic life. I love this book.
Peter Mayle
A wonderful antidote to...modern electronic life. I love this book.
Recent Reader Reviews
Rated of 5
by Lisa Shepard Just read it After reading it myself, I have bought this book, and the ones that follow, for all my closest friends. I will wait patiently until Chris feels he has lived enough to fill another book, and will be first in the queue to buy it when it it... Read More
Rated of 5
by From there Everything's a lie Chris Stewart is absolutely wrong in his descriptions of the place. It seems that here we live in the third world and that everybody is an uncultivated and impolite peasant. And there are a lot of more mistakes made by this author that I will not... Read More
Rated of 5
by Anonymous
it held my attention from the first page to the last. interesting and humorous. makes you wish to have a life like that.
Rated of 5
by Alicia
A wonderful read. This book was a great escape from modern life.
Rated of 5
by Derek Miles
Role on the follow up
Rated of 5
by casey
I really liked this book. It was very entertaining. Best of luck to Chris.
A celebrated writer's irresistible, candid, and eloquent account of her pursuit of worldly pleasure, spiritual devotion, and what she really wanted out of life.
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A bold, mesmerizing novel about the woman known as "Typhoid Mary," the first known healthy carrier of typhoid fever in the burgeoning metropolis of early twentieth century New York.
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Although heavy on the scientific details, which slowed down the story for me (OK, I admit, I was one of those liberal arts majors who skipped out on...
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Loved this book. Magical, quirky, enchanting I could go on. All books do not have to be literary fiction, sometimes it is just so comforting to read...
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Kirkus Reviews
Peter Mayle
of 5
by Lisa Shepard
of 5
by From there
of 5
by Anonymous
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