Exploring Life in Rome: A Journey Through Four Seasons, Twins, Insomnia, and the Largest Funeral in the World

Mads: Always enjoy a good read. This author brilliant

United Kingdom on Nov 24, 2023

Kindle Customer: A book to reread for all the openings into other writers, poems, plants, histories, and Rome. It is nterspersed with exploring a new city with 6 month old twins and trying to write a novel . I loved the intimate look at this writer's curiosity of all that passes before his eyes, be it graffiti or the Pantheon. I appreciated the glimpses of hands-on fatherhood and sleepless nights interspersed with his sense of awe and wonder of babyhood. Doerr may never have written the novel he intended but I'm glad he shared this portion of his life.

United States on Nov 13, 2023

Cheric: I spent 6 weeks at the American Academy in Rome and this book communicates the joys and trials of living in Rome. Plus you get insight into the thoughts of one of the greatest writers of our time.

United States on Nov 02, 2023

Kindle Customer David Gardner.: Enjoyable snippets that offer a glimpse of Rome along with life in Italy. Like most journals, very introspective and personal. I sensed a love for metaphor and poetry in this piece which for me made it a bit tedious. Still I loved the glimpse of life in this incredible city.

United States on Nov 02, 2023

Jackson Coppley: You have seen my blog review of Cloud Cuckoo Land by the very talented Anthony Doerr. His previous masterpiece was All the Light We Cannot See, the first novel of his I read. So, when I noticed Doerr’s memoir Four Seasons in Rome, I had to read it. Afterall, it’s about Rome and writing, both I know something about.

Doerr received a dream job as an artist in residence at the American Academy in Rome, where he was housed and fed and allowed free rein to do as he liked. However, the dream job can be a nightmare when you have newborn twin boys and a wife. Doerr spends much of his memoir describing the sleepless pain of parenthood traveling to a faraway land with diaper-wearing tots in tow.

However, the many sections that tour Rome are delightful to someone who has some familiarity with the eternal city. Seeing it through his eyes was delightful. His struggle with the language elicits empathy, but my Ellen is proficient in Italian and that makes it an uncommon experience.

For the writer, Doerr’s sharing of his process would have interest. If for no other reason, to see how much Doerr spends getting it to his satisfaction. Six drafts of a short story?

I...

United States on Aug 22, 2022

siddharthasiddhartha: Four seasons in Rome
#anthonydoerr

Let me start by saying , this is not your typical novel . This is not the novel to just read through the paragraphs and be done with , rather , this is the novel to sit within , to come heads down and cherish . This will definitely be lingering on your forthcoming days for many a moments.

A writer gets a tremendous opportunity to move to Rome for a year : only with one condition - to write a book on Rome . Wow !!!
So , he moves 12 hours after being a proud father of twins in a completely new location , new city , new culture and a foreign language to encounter .

But this book is not about his struggles in Rome with upbringing of his twins or wife's illness or adapting to new customs . This book , on the other hand , is another door to the wonderful ancient city , that is Rome . Not a travel book , but a vivid description of life in Rome as scribbled by a tourist .

You are definitely falling in love with Rome , and I will not be surprised , if you nourish the desire of enchanting yourself with the wonders of Rome one day .

Stay away from the book if you haven't yet read Anthony Doerr , because , his style...

India on Jun 17, 2021

Baf: I'd read some of this author's fictional books and thought to give this one a try, particularly since I have relatives who live in Italy and have spent some time in Rome. It's the story of how the author spent a year in that city with his wife and new born twins. He writes evocatively so I felt I was in Rome in many of his descriptions. There seems to be a tendency for certain people to go and live somewhere else without researching anything of that country, their customs or their language, and so they remain "strangers in a strange land". But perhaps the author didn't have time to do that! I like his work but didn't really warm to this one.

United Kingdom on Mar 27, 2021

Jibbingking: I enjoyed this book, which I found gave a good sense of what it was like for someone arriving in Rome, with his wife and two very young twin boys. It draws you in, and if you've been to Rome, or if you haven't, you get a feel for the experience of that city. Anthony Doerr is a writer who uses imagery very well, so if you like that kind of writing you'll enjoy this. There is no plot, it is simply a very poetic diary of his time there, and of the love for their two boys.

United Kingdom on Sep 04, 2020

Dave Todaro: Anthony Doerr can paint a scene with anyone. His careful word choices, understanding of the human psyche, and his ability to vary his writing cadence to fit the mood, are all superbly on display in his Pulitzer-Prize winning novel “All the Light We Cannot See.”

Add to that list dry humor, which he combines with all the above in “Four Seasons in Rome.” Watch him, and feel for him, as he tries to order groceries in his beginner’s Italian. See Roman grandmothers fawn over the twin boys in his stroller as he and his wife walk the crowded streets.

To say that Doerr is a “writer’s writer,” means that people who want to hone their own story-writing skills should read him carefully and pay attention to his use of the language. Soak in his work until it oozes back into ones’ own writing.

That was my purpose in exploring this, Doerr’s project to show us the Eternal City in his words.
One of my favorite passages is brilliant in its simplicity. It is Doerr’s description of what the family did at the 260-year old Fountain of Trevi, replete with its many statues and carvings of mythological figures, and famous to many Americans from the movies...

United States on Jan 20, 2019

Logesh Kumar: _Finishing this book, I felt a slight pang as if a close neighbor whom you have grown with has decided to move out of town and you wouldn't see them again.
This book is a memoir of an American writer moving to Rome with his wife and new born twins. His coming to terms with Parenthood , responsibilities , beauty and quirks of Rome. Anthony's words are magic , that makes this book so elevated from just being an account of someone.
A must read if you are a fan of any of these .. All the light we cannot see, Anthony doer , Rome or if you have / about to have twins.

India on Nov 01, 2018