Sixteen years after that he published a novel, and then another. Gustaf Sobin chose an unconventional path, found a place he loved, and made a life there. This took courage and persistence. It has never been easy to go against the grain, to do what you love, to make a home in a strange place. In some ways it's easier today than it was then.
Flights are frequent and airfares are cheap.
There are plenty of Americans with enough money to buy real estate in the countryside, and enough free time to make it worth their while. I can easily imagine some dot-com millionaire, feeling flush but unfulfilled, wanting to cultivate his creative side, cashing in his stock options and moving to Provence in order to become a poet. The thought makes me slightly ill. I'm not sure it's even possible today to do what Sobin did, while maintaining your self-respect. Today, if you move to Provence, or to Tuscany, or so many other places, you're not an expatriate, you're a tourist.