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Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Usually writers taking a holiday from their serious work will use a pseudonym (DeLillo as Cleo Birdwell), but British novelist Hamilton-Paterson (Gerontius, etc.), who lives in Italy, bravely serves a very funny sendup of Italian-cooking-holiday-romance novels, without any camouflage. Written from the alternating perspectives of two foreigners who have bought neighboring Tuscan houses, the book has no plot to speak of beyond when-will-they-sleep-together. Gerald Samper is an effete British ghost writer of sportsperson biographies (such as skier Per Snoilsson's Downhill All the Way!); neighbor Marta is a native Voynovian (think mountainous eastern bloc) trying to escape her rich family's descent into postcommunist criminality—by writing a film score for a "famous" pornographer's latest project. Each downs copious amounts of the title swill and carps at the reader about the other's infuriating ways: Gerald sings to himself in a manner that Marta then parodies for the film; Gerald relentlessly dissects the Voyde cuisine Marta serves him, all the while sharing recipes for his own hilariously absurd cuisine. Rock stars, helicopters, the porn director and son, and Marta's mafia brother all make appearances. The fun is in Hamilton-Paterson's offhand observations and delicate touch in handling his two unreliable misfits as they find each other—and there's lots of it. (Oct.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
"'Wickedly witty... Anyone who does not add this hilarious divertimento to their summer reading list should be put on a forced diet of Gerald's inimitable Alien Pie.' Michael Dibdin, Guardian; 'A deliciously nasty farce set in [Hamilton-Paterson's] adopted Tuscany... Cooking with Fernet Branca had me laughing out loud and uproariously. All Tuscanites should read it, preferably over a plate of stewed otter chunks in lobster sauce.' Sunday Telegraph; 'Larded with bitter satire and piquant wit, at the expense, often, of its readers and their dreams of Italy... I laughed out loud several times a chapter.' The Times"
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Cooking with Samper,
By
This review is from: Cooking with Fernet Branca (Paperback)
The story is a scream. Told from two differing perspectives of two transplanted neighbours in Tuscany. The author's expressive writing on fictitious recipes gives you the urge to want to try smoked cat with of course, a dash of Fernet Branca! My only complaint was in reaching the last page.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.4 out of 5 stars (17 customer reviews) 32 of 32 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Forget the recipes, just read the book!!,
By Peter T. Dewey - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Cooking With Fernet Branca (Paperback)
Readers accustomed to those travel stories whereby foreigners fall in love with a tumbledown old house in France or Italy and then lovingly restore it with the help of a bunch of well meaning but unreliable locals will love this new novel.Essentially a satire on the travel memoir genre, 'Cooking' is the story of Gerald and Marta, a pair of ill matched neighbours who live in a tiny village in the Tuscan hills. He is a English snob who ghostwrites for a living and cooks implausible recipes (thoughtfully included, but not recommended!!) as a vocation. Marta is an East European composer of film scores. The story is told be each of the characters in turn (each in the first person) as their lives become increasingly and reluctantly intertwined. You will guess the ending long before it arrives, but it won't matter at all. You'll be laughing too hard to care! Beautifully written and highly recommended. 24 of 24 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Witty delight of a novel,
By A. Kelly "lorrainecooke" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Cooking With Fernet Branca (Paperback)
I opened this one with trepidation after avoiding it for quite awhile. I heard about it thru' a Booker Prize programme on a BBC (UK) channel, in which "ordinary folk" were given the duty of reading every book on the Booker Prize long list, to see if their choices tallied with the judges as to who made it onto the short list.This was the one book that all the ordinary reviewers agreed on as being a pure delight to read. I tend to the view that all Booker books are so very "literary", with such scant regard to minor details as interesting characters, plot and story progresssion as to be near unreadable. So this was SUCH a pleasant surprise (as was the eventual winner "The Line Of Beauty" another recommended, highly readable novel.) So acidly funny that I laughed out loud frequently and raced thru' it to (regretfully) finish the novel in two days. The characters of Gerry and Marta are complete grotesques and the satirical and accurate sideswipes at such targets as pretentious film directors, modern "celebrities" and the Tuscan idyll memoir are mordantly witty. A joy! 18 of 18 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Delightful satire set in the hills of Italy.,
By Green Ibis "msiv" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Cooking With Fernet Branca (Paperback)
Best thing about the book is the dual perspective it is written from - alternate sections are written in the first person of two different people, Gerald, a ghostwriter, and Marta, a film music composer. They start off thinking the worst of each other, by and by modifying their opinions only slightly - thinking the other is a well-meaning but blundering, drunken fool.It is an outrageously comic commentary on a wide variety of subjects such as filmmaking, possible explanations for UFO-sightings, rebels from ex-Soviet bloc countries, and so on. Gerald being a self-professed "great cook" creates these ridiculous tongue-in-cheek recipes like "Chocolate coated and deep-fried mussels" with a perfectly straight face. Extraordinary quantities of Fernet Branca, a bitter Italian liqueur, is drunk throughout by all the characters, and all of Gerald's recipes contain Fernet Branca, giving the book its incongruous title. |
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