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My House in Umbria
Mrs. Emily Delahunty-a mysterious and not entirely trustworthy former madam-quietly runs a pensione in the Italian countryside and writes romance novels while she muses on her checkered past. Then one day her world is changed forever as the train she is riding in is blown up by terrorists. Taken to a local hospital to recuperate, she befriends the other survivors-an elderly English general, an American child, and a German boy-and takes them all to convalesce at her villa, with unforeseen results.
149 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1991
6 people are currently reading
508 people want to read
About the author
William Trevor
178 books760 followersWilliam Trevor, KBE grew up in various provincial towns and attended a number of schools, graduating from Trinity College, in Dublin, with a degree in history. He first exercised his artistry as a sculptor, working as a teacher in Northern Ireland and then emigrated to England in search of work when the school went bankrupt. He could have returned to Ireland once he became a successful writer, he said, "but by then I had become a wanderer, and one way and another, I just stayed in England ... I hated leaving Ireland. I was very bitter at the time. But, had it not happened, I think I might never have written at all."
In 1958 Trevor published his first novel, A Standard of Behaviour, to little critical success. Two years later, he abandoned sculpting completely, feeling his work had become too abstract, and found a job writing copy for a London advertising agency. 'This was absurd,' he said. 'They would give me four lines or so to write and four or five days to write it in. It was so boring. But they had given me this typewriter to work on, so I just started writing stories. I sometimes think all the people who were missing in my sculpture gushed out into the stories.' He published several short stories, then his second and third novels, which both won the Hawthornden Prize (established in 1919 by Alice Warrender and named after William Drummond of Hawthornden, the Hawthornden Prize is one of the UK's oldest literary awards). A number of other prizes followed, and Trevor began working full-time as a writer in 1965.
Since then, Trevor has published nearly 40 novels, short story collections, plays, and collections of nonfiction. He has won three Whitbread Awards, a PEN/Macmillan Silver Pen Award, and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. In 1977 Trevor was appointed an honorary (he holds Irish, not British, citizenship) Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) for his services to literature and in 2002 he was elevated to honorary Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (KBE). Since he began writing, William Trevor regularly spends half the year in Italy or Switzerland, often visiting Ireland in the other half. He lived in Devon, in South West England, on an old mill surrounded by 40 acres of land.
In 1958 Trevor published his first novel, A Standard of Behaviour, to little critical success. Two years later, he abandoned sculpting completely, feeling his work had become too abstract, and found a job writing copy for a London advertising agency. 'This was absurd,' he said. 'They would give me four lines or so to write and four or five days to write it in. It was so boring. But they had given me this typewriter to work on, so I just started writing stories. I sometimes think all the people who were missing in my sculpture gushed out into the stories.' He published several short stories, then his second and third novels, which both won the Hawthornden Prize (established in 1919 by Alice Warrender and named after William Drummond of Hawthornden, the Hawthornden Prize is one of the UK's oldest literary awards). A number of other prizes followed, and Trevor began working full-time as a writer in 1965.
Since then, Trevor has published nearly 40 novels, short story collections, plays, and collections of nonfiction. He has won three Whitbread Awards, a PEN/Macmillan Silver Pen Award, and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. In 1977 Trevor was appointed an honorary (he holds Irish, not British, citizenship) Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) for his services to literature and in 2002 he was elevated to honorary Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (KBE). Since he began writing, William Trevor regularly spends half the year in Italy or Switzerland, often visiting Ireland in the other half. He lived in Devon, in South West England, on an old mill surrounded by 40 acres of land.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 84 reviews
January 27, 2011
My House in Umbria is the first Trevor novella I had a bit of trouble engaging with the plot and characterization. Mrs Emily Delahunty, a 56-year-old woman with a less than respectable past, had re-invented and installed herself in an enchanting villa by the Italian countryside. Here she ran a pensione business with the help of her servant, Quinty, whose acquaintance hailed back to her life at the Café Rose in Ombubu, Africa, and who knew about her checkered origins. Perhaps as an escape from her incredibly difficult life, Mrs Delahunty found refuge in the life of the imagination and became quite a successful writer of romance fiction, with a modest fan following no less. The inspiration for the trashy titles seemed to have been derived from her days at the Café Rose but Mrs Delahunty claimed that her "stories were a help, no point in denying it." However, life changed dramatically for her when a train that was to take her to Milan on a shopping trip was blown apart. She invited to convalesce at her pensione three survivors: an old English General, a young German (Otmar), and an eight-year-old American girl (Aimee) who had lost her family on that fateful train. The survivors rendered support to each other as they struggled to come to terms with their respective losses. Much of Mrs Delahunty’s attention was, however, directed at Aimee’s maternal uncle, Mr Thomas Riversmith, who had come to Umbria to take his orphaned niece home with him. Riversmith was a cold and emotionally aloof ant scientist, and it was obvious he was unlikely to be an accessible guardian to Aimee. Though there was reason to dislike and distrust Riversmith, there was equal reason to detest Mrs Delahunty’s annoying compulsion to force her life story on Riversmith and also to invade his personal space by insisting that her dreams of Riversmith’s childhood with his estranged and dead sister as well as her imagining that Otmar was the train bomber were real. She tried in vain to stop Riversmith from taking Aimee to America. I found it frustrating trying to entangle parts of the narrative that were factual from those that were wild imagining of the narrator-protagonist, who increasingly became more and more unreliable as the story unfolded. Trevor, however, remains a master of impeccable prose writing and if the storyline fails to grab you, his writing almost always works its charm.
June 22, 2010
Do not confuse this book with books such as "Under the Tuscan Sun" or "A Year in Provence." This book, although set in the Italian countryside, is really a character study. The narrator is one of several survivors of a bombed train car who, under some plot contrivance, all gather to recuperate at the titled House in Umbria. This book demands all of your concentration as the narrator is given to digressions which may, or may not, be relevant to the plot line. Do not assume that the fact that Maggie Smith plays the narrator in the HBO movie means that the narrator is sympathetic figure. In fact, I found myself repulsed by her behavior, which may account for the lack of stars in my review. Ultimately horrifying and unsatisfying.
September 17, 2019
Nothing can be worse than the impact of a terrorist’s bomb? After reading “My House in Umbria” I’m not so sure! A terrorist’s bomb explodes prematurely in an Italian railway carriage! Lives are snuffed out and lives are changed in that quiet split second! William Trevor devotes but one sentence to the blast! It is so fast a death that victims will not suffer! Victims will not know!
But survivors? This short story is a manual for all of us survivors! For anyone who remembers a before and is living in an after!
Mrs Delahunty was on the train. Mrs Delahunty was in the carriage! Mrs Delahunty survived the blast and Mrs Delahunty invites the survivors back to her house in Umbria! Mrs Delahunty was a survivor long before the young German man was recruited by terrorists to carry a bomb with him and its intended target onto the train! Long before the old colonel took the railway with his daughter and her husband! Long before the young girl boarded the carriage with her living mother and father! Then the bomb and only Mrs. Delahunty, the bomber, the colonel and the little girl survive.
Yes Mrs Delahunty’s story, as we slowly hear it though William Trevor’s poetic text, is shocking! Mrs Delahunty has much to be vengeful for but despite her dislocated and unreliable personality it is her we would rather spend time with in her beautiful garden in Umbria that the little girl’s uncle who comes, unlovingly, to fetch her away to America!
Bombs, it seems, are the least of our troubles compared with the unfeeling vagueries of the human heart.
But survivors? This short story is a manual for all of us survivors! For anyone who remembers a before and is living in an after!
Mrs Delahunty was on the train. Mrs Delahunty was in the carriage! Mrs Delahunty survived the blast and Mrs Delahunty invites the survivors back to her house in Umbria! Mrs Delahunty was a survivor long before the young German man was recruited by terrorists to carry a bomb with him and its intended target onto the train! Long before the old colonel took the railway with his daughter and her husband! Long before the young girl boarded the carriage with her living mother and father! Then the bomb and only Mrs. Delahunty, the bomber, the colonel and the little girl survive.
Yes Mrs Delahunty’s story, as we slowly hear it though William Trevor’s poetic text, is shocking! Mrs Delahunty has much to be vengeful for but despite her dislocated and unreliable personality it is her we would rather spend time with in her beautiful garden in Umbria that the little girl’s uncle who comes, unlovingly, to fetch her away to America!
Bombs, it seems, are the least of our troubles compared with the unfeeling vagueries of the human heart.
November 14, 2011
I love William Trevor and his understated way of letting us get up close to his characters and yet maintain a certain aura around him he never disappoints me in that he can make the mundane look and feel ever so real and true to life in all it's pain and glory.
This novel was no exception. We meet some wonderful human characters wide open to their flaws, who are thrown together in life through a terrorist attack on a train they were all traveling on. They come together in a house in Umbria to try to heal and learn a the importance of understanding and closeness, care and concern. Their hostess, herself a one time prostitute who was used from the time she was a choked, join together in their own simple way to try to heal one another. They share tragedy and yet it is through this, that they find each other and begin the healing process.
Never quite sure of the characters, Trevor leads us on their journey and makes us aware of how each and every one of us shares responsibility for one another. He does not need to beat us over the head with this message. It is evident in the way his characters form relationships and put each other before themselves. I truly loved the unselfish nature Trevor so deveoles in his characters. They all, well not the one who was not in the accident, make you care about them as you feel the author does. Another successful Trevor story for me for sure.
This novel was no exception. We meet some wonderful human characters wide open to their flaws, who are thrown together in life through a terrorist attack on a train they were all traveling on. They come together in a house in Umbria to try to heal and learn a the importance of understanding and closeness, care and concern. Their hostess, herself a one time prostitute who was used from the time she was a choked, join together in their own simple way to try to heal one another. They share tragedy and yet it is through this, that they find each other and begin the healing process.
Never quite sure of the characters, Trevor leads us on their journey and makes us aware of how each and every one of us shares responsibility for one another. He does not need to beat us over the head with this message. It is evident in the way his characters form relationships and put each other before themselves. I truly loved the unselfish nature Trevor so deveoles in his characters. They all, well not the one who was not in the accident, make you care about them as you feel the author does. Another successful Trevor story for me for sure.
July 28, 2019
I put this one down part way through, not really picking it up for several days. So, when I went to finish the story, there were details that I didn't fully remember. Not a deal-breaker as such since the story tone changed Midway through, but still was a slight issue for me.
The only character I found not very likeable was the girl's uncle who comes from America to claim her. Also, at that point the main character landlady becomes less likeable herself. On the other hand, his appearance picks the book up a bit from where it had been lagging. Overall, I wouldn't recommend this one strongly, and definitely would not recommend it as a place to start with the author!
The only character I found not very likeable was the girl's uncle who comes from America to claim her. Also, at that point the main character landlady becomes less likeable herself. On the other hand, his appearance picks the book up a bit from where it had been lagging. Overall, I wouldn't recommend this one strongly, and definitely would not recommend it as a place to start with the author!
April 24, 2017
Read this off and on these past two weeks and took it with me for my weekend in LA. The landscapes take me back to one of the prettiest areas of Italia. Yet, if you're looking for an inspiring tale of olive groves and rolling hillsides, you will not find it. It's about strangers, adapting after a horrible accident and what transpires under a house in Umbria.
February 21, 2018
I loved this novella, easily read on a cold winter day. The writing is stellar, the characters well rounded and the plot intriguing. The movie featured lots of Italian countryside and Maggie Smith as the very complex inn keeper.
April 29, 2019
This is really a 4+, as in story = 4; writing = 5. William Trevor's skill in unwinding a story is unparalleled, and his use of language is beyond artful. Damaged, tragic people always populate Trevor's works, but this time around I found it hard to respond sympathetically to their trials. Perhaps that's a fault of the reader rather than the writer! In any case, I look forward to reading more of William Trevor's works.
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June 30, 2019A writer of romances takes in the survivors of a train bombing in what seems like (but is not) a sweet-natured meditation on loss and love. Mean, clever, strange, a curveball coming in high and fast, be careful you don't get plunked. By which I mean you should probably read this book.
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July 27, 2019Ik geloof niet dat William Trevor hier in Nederland erg beroemd is en zeker niet bij het grote publiek, maar hij staat bekend als één van de grote korteverhalenschrijvers van de twintigste eeuw en ook als romanschrijver wordt hij hoog aangeslagen. Ik las Death in Summer en dat was een mooi boek, weet ik nog, en The Story of Lucy Gault was zelfs hartverscheurend mooi, één van mijn favoriete romans van 2003. Het wordt dus tijd om eens wat reclame te maken voor deze Ierse schrijver.
Mijn kennismaking met My House in Umbria begon in 2011 met de dvd, waarvan ik helemaal niet wist dat die op een roman was gebaseerd. Ik kocht hem alleen maar omdat (a) hoofdrolspelers Maggie Smith en Timothy Spall twee van mijn favoriete acteurs zijn en (b) ik dacht dat het een gezellige feel good film á la Enchanted April was. Ik ben dus met nogal specifieke verwachtingen voor de buis neergestreken, maar toen al snel bleek dat het een heel ander soort verhaal was, heb ik de dvd gauw weer stopgezet en opgeborgen, want op dat moment had ik dringend behoefte aan zonnig escapisme. Ik was die hele dvd alweer vergeten, toen ik onlangs ergens las dat hij gebaseerd was op een boek van William Trevor. Verhip! Dat was interessant nieuws . Ik kon de roman gelukkig gemakkelijk als e-boek op de kop tikken, ben er meteen aan begonnen en heb hem in een paar rukken uitgelezen.
Het heerlijke van dit boek is dat je nooit helemaal waar je aan toe bent met het verhaal. Het wordt verteld door een vrouw van 55, die meerdere namen heeft gehad, geen van alle haar echte, maar die zich momenteel Mrs Emily Delahunty noemt. Ze heeft geld, een groot afgelegen huis in Umbrië en een enigszins louche Iers manusje-van-alles genaamd Quinty. Zij en Quinty kennen elkaar nog uit de tijd dat Mrs Delahunty een café ergens in Afrika runde. De details blijven nogal schimmig, maar duidelijk is wel dat ook Mrs Delahunty's verleden een beetje aan de louche kant is (maar niet direct crimineel, om misverstanden te voorkomen). Nu is ze echter respectabel. Ze ontvangt betalende gasten, maar let op: alleen als de hotels in de omgeving geen ruimte meer hebben en geen nee willen verkopen, en Quinty gaat over het geld en het personeel - dat u vooral niet denkt dat dit een commerciële tent is en dat ze het voor de centen doet.
Mrs Delahunty's hoofdbezigheid is namelijk tegenwoordig het schrijven van succesvolle romans, met onvergetelijke titels als Precious September, Flight to Enchantment, For Ever More en Behold My Heart! Ze is - in de trein naar Milaan, voor een beetje winkelen - net bezig een plot te verzinnen voor haar nieuwste titel Ceaseless Tears, als haar treinstel ontploft. Letterlijk. Het is 1987, de tijd waarin Italië nog regelmatig wordt opgeschrikt door bomaanslagen van terroristen van eigen bodem. Mrs Delahunty wordt in verwarde toestand wakker in het ziekenhuis, met een bezorgde Quinty aan haar bed, maar zonder al te ernstige verwondingen. Als ze weer op de been is, neemt ze de drie overige overlevenden, een oude Engelse generaal, een Duitse jongeman en een Amerikaanse meisje, ruimhartig bij haar in huis. Alle drie hebben ze al hun geliefden verloren bij de aanslag en Mrs Delahunty gunt ze alle tijd om rustig op adem te komen voordat ze hun oude levens weer proberen op te pakken na de gruwelijke verliezen die ze hebben geleden.
Het lijkt bijna idyllisch te worden, zo met zijn viertjes, totdat de oom van het kleine meisje uit Amerika overkomt om haar mee naar huis te nemen en steeds duidelijker wordt dat Mrs Delahunty moeite heeft om werkelijkheid en fantasie uit elkaar te houden. Trevor beschrijft dat heel subtiel en geleidelijk. We zien eerst dat onze ik-persoon voortdurend bezig is met het verzinnen van karakters en scènes voor haar romans, en dat ze als een echte creatieveling haar inspiratie haalt uit willekeurige mensen om haar heen, precies zoals de meeste schrijvers dat doen. Ze is uitstekend in het observeren van haar omgeving en daarom heeft ze na de aanslag nog precies op het netvlies wie haar medeslachtoffers in haar treinstel waren, zowel zij die het overleefden als zij die omkwamen. Het gaat pas mis als ze haar verzinsels voor feiten aan begint te zien. En dan blijkt ook nog dat ze het heel gewoon vindt de telefoongesprekken van haar gasten af te luisteren en hun kamers te doorzoeken. Oh jee.
Maar ondanks alles moet je toch van Mrs Delahunty houden. Ze heeft geen kwaad in de zin; ze is alleen maar op zoek naar de liefde die ze in haar weinig geslaagde jeugd heeft moeten missen. Dat ze zichzelf opzettelijk voor de gek houdt, kun je haar dan toch moeilijk kwalijk nemen. Over haar afkomst is ze altijd eerlijk, en ook over haar minder respectabele jaren daarna (tenminste, die indruk heb je wel als lezer, maar je weet het niet helemaal zeker). De roze bril van fictie waardoor ze niet alleen de buitenwereld maar ook zichzelf bekijkt is voor haar een overlevingsmechanisme, of op zijn minst een mechanisme om het leven schoonheid te geven. En haar hart is groot, net als het talent van William Trevor, die haar met relatief weinig pennenstreken zo subtiel en zonder te oordelen heeft neergezet in deze bescheiden maar innemende roman, waar een meelevende glimlach nooit ver onder de oppervlakte ligt.
https://annavangelderen.blogspot.com/
Mijn kennismaking met My House in Umbria begon in 2011 met de dvd, waarvan ik helemaal niet wist dat die op een roman was gebaseerd. Ik kocht hem alleen maar omdat (a) hoofdrolspelers Maggie Smith en Timothy Spall twee van mijn favoriete acteurs zijn en (b) ik dacht dat het een gezellige feel good film á la Enchanted April was. Ik ben dus met nogal specifieke verwachtingen voor de buis neergestreken, maar toen al snel bleek dat het een heel ander soort verhaal was, heb ik de dvd gauw weer stopgezet en opgeborgen, want op dat moment had ik dringend behoefte aan zonnig escapisme. Ik was die hele dvd alweer vergeten, toen ik onlangs ergens las dat hij gebaseerd was op een boek van William Trevor. Verhip! Dat was interessant nieuws . Ik kon de roman gelukkig gemakkelijk als e-boek op de kop tikken, ben er meteen aan begonnen en heb hem in een paar rukken uitgelezen.
Het heerlijke van dit boek is dat je nooit helemaal waar je aan toe bent met het verhaal. Het wordt verteld door een vrouw van 55, die meerdere namen heeft gehad, geen van alle haar echte, maar die zich momenteel Mrs Emily Delahunty noemt. Ze heeft geld, een groot afgelegen huis in Umbrië en een enigszins louche Iers manusje-van-alles genaamd Quinty. Zij en Quinty kennen elkaar nog uit de tijd dat Mrs Delahunty een café ergens in Afrika runde. De details blijven nogal schimmig, maar duidelijk is wel dat ook Mrs Delahunty's verleden een beetje aan de louche kant is (maar niet direct crimineel, om misverstanden te voorkomen). Nu is ze echter respectabel. Ze ontvangt betalende gasten, maar let op: alleen als de hotels in de omgeving geen ruimte meer hebben en geen nee willen verkopen, en Quinty gaat over het geld en het personeel - dat u vooral niet denkt dat dit een commerciële tent is en dat ze het voor de centen doet.
Mrs Delahunty's hoofdbezigheid is namelijk tegenwoordig het schrijven van succesvolle romans, met onvergetelijke titels als Precious September, Flight to Enchantment, For Ever More en Behold My Heart! Ze is - in de trein naar Milaan, voor een beetje winkelen - net bezig een plot te verzinnen voor haar nieuwste titel Ceaseless Tears, als haar treinstel ontploft. Letterlijk. Het is 1987, de tijd waarin Italië nog regelmatig wordt opgeschrikt door bomaanslagen van terroristen van eigen bodem. Mrs Delahunty wordt in verwarde toestand wakker in het ziekenhuis, met een bezorgde Quinty aan haar bed, maar zonder al te ernstige verwondingen. Als ze weer op de been is, neemt ze de drie overige overlevenden, een oude Engelse generaal, een Duitse jongeman en een Amerikaanse meisje, ruimhartig bij haar in huis. Alle drie hebben ze al hun geliefden verloren bij de aanslag en Mrs Delahunty gunt ze alle tijd om rustig op adem te komen voordat ze hun oude levens weer proberen op te pakken na de gruwelijke verliezen die ze hebben geleden.
Het lijkt bijna idyllisch te worden, zo met zijn viertjes, totdat de oom van het kleine meisje uit Amerika overkomt om haar mee naar huis te nemen en steeds duidelijker wordt dat Mrs Delahunty moeite heeft om werkelijkheid en fantasie uit elkaar te houden. Trevor beschrijft dat heel subtiel en geleidelijk. We zien eerst dat onze ik-persoon voortdurend bezig is met het verzinnen van karakters en scènes voor haar romans, en dat ze als een echte creatieveling haar inspiratie haalt uit willekeurige mensen om haar heen, precies zoals de meeste schrijvers dat doen. Ze is uitstekend in het observeren van haar omgeving en daarom heeft ze na de aanslag nog precies op het netvlies wie haar medeslachtoffers in haar treinstel waren, zowel zij die het overleefden als zij die omkwamen. Het gaat pas mis als ze haar verzinsels voor feiten aan begint te zien. En dan blijkt ook nog dat ze het heel gewoon vindt de telefoongesprekken van haar gasten af te luisteren en hun kamers te doorzoeken. Oh jee.
Maar ondanks alles moet je toch van Mrs Delahunty houden. Ze heeft geen kwaad in de zin; ze is alleen maar op zoek naar de liefde die ze in haar weinig geslaagde jeugd heeft moeten missen. Dat ze zichzelf opzettelijk voor de gek houdt, kun je haar dan toch moeilijk kwalijk nemen. Over haar afkomst is ze altijd eerlijk, en ook over haar minder respectabele jaren daarna (tenminste, die indruk heb je wel als lezer, maar je weet het niet helemaal zeker). De roze bril van fictie waardoor ze niet alleen de buitenwereld maar ook zichzelf bekijkt is voor haar een overlevingsmechanisme, of op zijn minst een mechanisme om het leven schoonheid te geven. En haar hart is groot, net als het talent van William Trevor, die haar met relatief weinig pennenstreken zo subtiel en zonder te oordelen heeft neergezet in deze bescheiden maar innemende roman, waar een meelevende glimlach nooit ver onder de oppervlakte ligt.
https://annavangelderen.blogspot.com/
September 23, 2015
Easy to mistake this, at first sight, for a comforting read about the good life in Umbria — which must account for some of the low ratings it has achieved here. Trevor understands how the title will set expectations: one settles down anticipating la dolce vita and instead is led into some very dark places. It is about suffering and the damaged, survival and, perhaps, redemption.
The narrator, Mrs Delahunty, is a wonderfully unreliable narrator, slowly unwinding as the tale progresses. Through hints, light observations, quick comments unexplained, we piece together the fact that she is a woman who was sold into a life of sexual abuse as a child and has lived as a kept woman or prostitute until she found she could write romance novels and bring pleasure to thousands of readers also looking for an escape from real life. Caught up in a terrorist explosion on an Italian train, she offers her Umbrian home (with her former pimp-cum-general factotum Quinty acting as co-host) as a haven for some of those injured and bereaved in the blast — and so the story unfolds. Her mutually dependent relationship with Quinty is delicately handled, as are so many things in this jewel of a book.
How prescient Trevor seems: child abuse, exploitation, terrorism — all, sadly, part of our everyday world and all presented in their mundanity. No sensationalism, just the sadness at the heart of things exposed.
The narrator, Mrs Delahunty, is a wonderfully unreliable narrator, slowly unwinding as the tale progresses. Through hints, light observations, quick comments unexplained, we piece together the fact that she is a woman who was sold into a life of sexual abuse as a child and has lived as a kept woman or prostitute until she found she could write romance novels and bring pleasure to thousands of readers also looking for an escape from real life. Caught up in a terrorist explosion on an Italian train, she offers her Umbrian home (with her former pimp-cum-general factotum Quinty acting as co-host) as a haven for some of those injured and bereaved in the blast — and so the story unfolds. Her mutually dependent relationship with Quinty is delicately handled, as are so many things in this jewel of a book.
How prescient Trevor seems: child abuse, exploitation, terrorism — all, sadly, part of our everyday world and all presented in their mundanity. No sensationalism, just the sadness at the heart of things exposed.
January 30, 2011
"A garden should have little gardens tucked away inside it. It should have alcoves and secret places, and paths that make you want to take them even though they don't lead anywhere. What grows well, cherish. What doesn't, you throw out." (118)
B and I are having a couple days long conversation about 'hard women' -- alice munro, lorrie moore and the other unflinching girls who remember and list the offenses against their characters. Munro has some softness to her -- she writes the occasional love story -- but if I had to nominate a man for that category, Trevor would be it. This book is so hard. There's no respite from tragic things here.
B and I are having a couple days long conversation about 'hard women' -- alice munro, lorrie moore and the other unflinching girls who remember and list the offenses against their characters. Munro has some softness to her -- she writes the occasional love story -- but if I had to nominate a man for that category, Trevor would be it. This book is so hard. There's no respite from tragic things here.
August 30, 2007
This short, delicately written novel contains a big story full of abandonment, incest, prostitution, a bombed train, alcoholism, and deceit, but blink and you'll miss it. The voice of the narrator starts out so sure and is so inviting that it's easy to miss hints that her perspective isn't necessarily trustworthy. Her slow unspooling of information about herself, paired with her disintigration, culminates without high drama and goes out on a note of wistfulness. Trevor's writing is balanced and unjudging, giving us a full and engrossing personality to puzzle out.
November 19, 2012
I had such high hopes for this book. It seemed so good from the blurb on the back. But he problem is, I found it rather meandering, and I couldn't really understand what the author was getting at. What is this book really about? I'm still unsure. Plus I started to really dislike Mrs Delahunty and the way she forced herself on Mr Riversmith. It was uncomfortable to read. Perhaps that was the point, but it was a major turn-off for me, especially as she felt she was doing nothing wrong. A strange book, made bearable only by its brevity.
April 25, 2013
I am now officially a William Trevor fan. This book, however, is pretty close to the bone just now, dealing with the survivors of what seems to be a terrorist bombing on a train in Italy. Like Lucy Gault, the main character is a solitary woman with damage in her past. Trevor peels off layers as memories surface.
watched-film-only
November 19, 2011Added 11/19/11.
I did not read this book but watched the movie adaptation instead via a Netflix DVD:
"My House in Umbria" (TV 2003)
http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/My_...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0323332/
There's a wonderful film review (by David Wiegand of the San Francisco Chronicle) at:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article...
Excerpt:
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"Very little seems lost in this lovely adaptation of William Trevor's 1991 short novel, premiering Sunday on HBO, thanks in no small way to a magnificent and uncharacteristically restrained performance by Maggie Smith as Emily Delahunty, an aging romance novelist..."
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At times I felt that the movie edged a bit on being a bit "sappy". The background music was a bit too sweet. However the story was interesting and Maggie Smith played her role so beautifully that she kept my interest throughout.
A review I found at IMDb said "Maggie Smith has the kind of mesmerizing voice and marvelous diction that would enable her to entertain film audiences by reading the proverbial telephone book." This is so true!
The scenes of various locales in Italy and of the Italian countryside were beautiful. The flavor of Italy came through. This added so much to the film. I felt as if I had visited that country in my mind's eye.
I did not read this book but watched the movie adaptation instead via a Netflix DVD:
"My House in Umbria" (TV 2003)
http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/My_...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0323332/
There's a wonderful film review (by David Wiegand of the San Francisco Chronicle) at:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article...
Excerpt:
===================================
"Very little seems lost in this lovely adaptation of William Trevor's 1991 short novel, premiering Sunday on HBO, thanks in no small way to a magnificent and uncharacteristically restrained performance by Maggie Smith as Emily Delahunty, an aging romance novelist..."
===================================
At times I felt that the movie edged a bit on being a bit "sappy". The background music was a bit too sweet. However the story was interesting and Maggie Smith played her role so beautifully that she kept my interest throughout.
A review I found at IMDb said "Maggie Smith has the kind of mesmerizing voice and marvelous diction that would enable her to entertain film audiences by reading the proverbial telephone book." This is so true!
The scenes of various locales in Italy and of the Italian countryside were beautiful. The flavor of Italy came through. This added so much to the film. I felt as if I had visited that country in my mind's eye.
November 20, 2022
I had to read this for a workshop. Not sure what to think. It took a really long time to get into and while there was some interesting commentary on truth and the blurring of fiction vs. life, an unreliable narrator and a good creep factor, ultimately this was just okay. I think I prefer a stronger plot or characters I can get more attached to without having to wait until the end for it all to come together. There was also a lot going on for a shorter book, although to be sure, I'm glad this wasn't longer. Will be interesting to hear what the workshop instructor says -- maybe I'm just bitter that I had to read this obscure text from 1991 when we're living in the golden age of literature right now and there are so many writers doing more interesting things.
July 4, 2023
A former prostitute in Africa reinvents herself in Umbria, operating a pension for hotel overflow. While on a train she, along with others, is the victim of a terrorist attack. Recovering in the hospital she comes to know the other survivors: an elderly English gentleman who lost his daughter and son-in-law in the blast, young lovers speaking German, the man who survived losing his fiancé and his arm, a young American child who loses her whole family in the melee. The pension owner invites the threesome to recuperate in her home.
Read
July 27, 2011I found it well written and intruiging however at times I got confused. I'm not sure if this has to do with the writing specificly or Mrs Delahunty as the narrator since she obviously has some issues.
June 25, 2023
A garden should have little gardens tucked away inside it. It should have alcoves and secret places, and paths that make you want to take them even though they don't lead anywhere. What grows well, cherish. What doesn't, you throw out.
The house in Umbria belongs to Mrs. Delahunty, an enigmatic woman with a sordid past, who now runs an Italian pensione with another inscrutable character by the name of Quinty. Her past is questionable, but life is, at last, all she could desire, since she now writes romance novels and has a lovely home and plenty of money. On a train trip to Milan she becomes the victim of a terrorist bomb, and the rhythm of her life is shattered beyond repair. She survives along with three other people in her carriage: an elderly English general, a young German boy, and a small American girl.
When they have all recovered sufficiently to be dismissed from the hospital, Mrs. Delahunty takes them home with her to Umbria to heal. But, the scars they carry are not ones that can be easily erased, and the ordeal they have survived bonds them to one another in a way a little beyond the comprehension of others.
It is the child, Aimee, around which the other survivors rally. She is also the most damaged survivor, having lost her entire family in the blast and suffering from the trauma this produces. When her uncle, whom she has never met, is finally located and arrives to take her away, the story takes an interesting and intricate turn.
Trevor has written a wonderfully complex character in Emily Delahunty. She is tough, but insightful, generous and soft-hearted. She is also given to imaginings, which spill over into her life and make the truth blurry and hard to pinpoint, as if she is somehow trying to live inside the fairytale romances that she writes. The story works, however, only because it is told from her perspective, and we are able to see the effect that it has to survive not only the attack on the railway but also the uncertain life this woman has been forced to live.
The group that gathers at the house in Umbria could not consist of a more diverse membership. They are from different countries and wholly different backgrounds, but what they have in common is their experience and their loss, and their need to help someone else survive.
The house in Umbria belongs to Mrs. Delahunty, an enigmatic woman with a sordid past, who now runs an Italian pensione with another inscrutable character by the name of Quinty. Her past is questionable, but life is, at last, all she could desire, since she now writes romance novels and has a lovely home and plenty of money. On a train trip to Milan she becomes the victim of a terrorist bomb, and the rhythm of her life is shattered beyond repair. She survives along with three other people in her carriage: an elderly English general, a young German boy, and a small American girl.
When they have all recovered sufficiently to be dismissed from the hospital, Mrs. Delahunty takes them home with her to Umbria to heal. But, the scars they carry are not ones that can be easily erased, and the ordeal they have survived bonds them to one another in a way a little beyond the comprehension of others.
It is the child, Aimee, around which the other survivors rally. She is also the most damaged survivor, having lost her entire family in the blast and suffering from the trauma this produces. When her uncle, whom she has never met, is finally located and arrives to take her away, the story takes an interesting and intricate turn.
Trevor has written a wonderfully complex character in Emily Delahunty. She is tough, but insightful, generous and soft-hearted. She is also given to imaginings, which spill over into her life and make the truth blurry and hard to pinpoint, as if she is somehow trying to live inside the fairytale romances that she writes. The story works, however, only because it is told from her perspective, and we are able to see the effect that it has to survive not only the attack on the railway but also the uncertain life this woman has been forced to live.
The group that gathers at the house in Umbria could not consist of a more diverse membership. They are from different countries and wholly different backgrounds, but what they have in common is their experience and their loss, and their need to help someone else survive.
August 2, 2018
MY HOUSE IN UMBRIA
I read this book as a part of Two Lives, published in combination with another Trevor's novel, Reading Turgenev, which explains some of the comparisons made in me review.
I finished the second novel in the book today and I loved it even more thatn the first one. Or, more accurately, it is the combination that makes the Two Lives duo particularly praiseworthy for me.
My House in Umbria is so steadily told, its a has a rhythm of its own, and quite a different, slower pace, than Reading Turgenev. At first, it reads as a simple story by an uncouth narrator; than you begin to recognise the self-reflexive dimension of it, and to realize that it is rather a learning-by-doing (or rather by-reading) manual on how a fictional story is to be told, how a texture of a fictional text is to be woven. Later you begin to suspect a detective plot lurking behind it all. At the next step a suspition was born in my head, that solution of the mistery would be found not among the events construing the plot proper, but in the waning reliability of the narrator, not unlike in Reading Turgenev... The final twist of the plot lets the drugged Sybill win in the battle of the intuitive, creative and uncertain against the rational, conscious and scientific.
I am ever so happy to have discovered this loveliest of books for myself, what a tender and fine duet!
Hier, as well, unreserved recommendations!
I read this book as a part of Two Lives, published in combination with another Trevor's novel, Reading Turgenev, which explains some of the comparisons made in me review.
I finished the second novel in the book today and I loved it even more thatn the first one. Or, more accurately, it is the combination that makes the Two Lives duo particularly praiseworthy for me.
My House in Umbria is so steadily told, its a has a rhythm of its own, and quite a different, slower pace, than Reading Turgenev. At first, it reads as a simple story by an uncouth narrator; than you begin to recognise the self-reflexive dimension of it, and to realize that it is rather a learning-by-doing (or rather by-reading) manual on how a fictional story is to be told, how a texture of a fictional text is to be woven. Later you begin to suspect a detective plot lurking behind it all. At the next step a suspition was born in my head, that solution of the mistery would be found not among the events construing the plot proper, but in the waning reliability of the narrator, not unlike in Reading Turgenev... The final twist of the plot lets the drugged Sybill win in the battle of the intuitive, creative and uncertain against the rational, conscious and scientific.
I am ever so happy to have discovered this loveliest of books for myself, what a tender and fine duet!
Hier, as well, unreserved recommendations!
June 9, 2020
A short novel from one of my favourite authors, but at the same time delicate and devastating. Written by William Trevor nearly thirty years ago, Mrs Delahunty is haunted both by her traumatic past and even more traumatic recent event. In middle age she tells us about the repercussions of the latter but only dips into her early life which would make an even better story.
It is her house in Umbria that takes in a small number of tourists before the outrage and survivors afterwards. We have huge sympathy for her, but as the story progresses, we find her attitude harder to accept. Trevor pulls no punches in his beautiful prose. It is the writing that saves a tragic tale.
It is her house in Umbria that takes in a small number of tourists before the outrage and survivors afterwards. We have huge sympathy for her, but as the story progresses, we find her attitude harder to accept. Trevor pulls no punches in his beautiful prose. It is the writing that saves a tragic tale.
February 26, 2025
I enjoy William Trevor's writing but found this novel very different partly because it was set in Italy rather than Ireland, and the first person narrator was a very strange character. She had experienced a very chequered past but I found her behaviour as the book went on to be very strange. It was also hard to follow as her thoughts flitted between her novels (she wrote romance novels), her past and her vivid imagination. Whilst I did enjoy parts of this novel there were other times when I really didn't like it.
January 3, 2019
I liked the book a lot. 3.5 stars. The story is simple and told effortlessly. We have Mrs. Delahunty who has a house in Umbria and she is the narrator. She is the victim of an attack (unclaimed by anyone) of a timed device while on a train. There is loss of life and soon after the surviving victims come to stay at her house in Umbria.
William Trevor is a beautiful storyteller and I enjoyed the book a great deal. The ending however left me a little dissatisfied. Otherwise a lovely book!
William Trevor is a beautiful storyteller and I enjoyed the book a great deal. The ending however left me a little dissatisfied. Otherwise a lovely book!
March 28, 2020
Interesting short read. A terrorist bombing on a train throw some unlikely characters together at a house/hotel run by a former madam, Emily Delahunty. Emily has had a sad background but has found some peace in Umbria. She is a generous and forgiving hostess. When the uncle of a young girl orphaned by the tragedy arrives from America to bring the girl back, emotion contrasts with intellect, and Emily tries to keep the girl in Italy.
July 10, 2017
I would actually give this 3.5 stars and 4 stars for most of the book. I loved the writing and the mysteries that are slowly revealed about the main character. The end just got a little strange with her behavior, but overall I really enjoyed this short book and liked it much better than Reading Turgenev.
August 4, 2019
I bought this book on a whim because of the author and the setting. I have friends and relatives who've lived in Umbria and I'd hoped to expand my imagination of what it is like there. I enjoyed the story, but the focus was more on the characters' relationships with one another than on the setting. I guess I'll just have to go over there and experience Umbria in person one day.
February 7, 2021
Tragedy occurs, but in a hopeful show of resilience, the survivors bravely try to forge a new life together in the aftermath. But real life and human frailty intervene, toward a quietly devastating result. Once again, Trevor tells a small story, but tells it thoroughly and with deep meaning and humanity.
October 11, 2023
Strangers are brought together by a terrorist attack on a train - and then go heal together in the titular house in Umbria. Overall, I enjoy Trevor's prose and liked the timeless feel of this story - save for occasional references to 1980s technology, it could have taken place any time in the 20th century. But in general, this was a shrug-worthy novel.
May 31, 2018
What an interesting character study, and written with such balance and poise, too. The end really made me itch with discomfort even while the protagonist made herself more pathetic, more tragic. Beautiful portraiture all round
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