Amazing Disgrace

If you have read and enjoyed Cooking with Fernet Branca, you will be disappointed with this sequel. There are a few quite funny passages but most of the book is tedious beyond belief. Such a shame because the plot could be very funny if it were not for Gerald Sampers thoughts which drone on and on and in the end you just don't care. It is only peppered with a couple of Geralds recipes which made the first book so hilarious and instead of his love hate relationship with his neighbour we have accounts of his 'coming out'. You do have to read it carefully though because there are some real gems hidden away which you might miss when you try and skip a few paragraphs!

EXCELLENT! (4/4 people found this helpful)

After reading James Hamilton-Paterson's 'Loving Monsters' and thoroughly enjoying it, I decided to order another of his books, and settled down with great anticipation to enjoy 'Amazing Disgrace'.I was not disappointed. Although the style is quite different, there is the unmistakeable authorial voice and the snide comments and awareness of the absurdity of life.People's foibles are unmasked quite viciously but in the most amusing, ironic manner and the narrator, Gerald Samper, is able to look at his own pride and preciousness with the same humour.The victim of Samper's scorn and derision is Millie Cleat, the one-armed sailor who is revelling in her own self-love and the adoration of her followers, but there is a group who loathe her for her disregard of their activities which are not as self-involved and fame-seeking. Samper is her biographer so he has the ability to set up a scenario which will expose her as the cheat that she is and he attempts to do this with enthusiasm.Revolving around this plot are all the sub-plots which involve everyday experiences in people's lives - the spam which we receive daily on the internet is challenged by Samper,the tendency to use recipes in books to entice the reader, the environmental issues which beset us, the fanaticism surrounding the sea and the sounds of the sea..........It is a brilliantly written book, constructed by a master wordsmith.Do buy it, you will enjoy it very much.

Cooking with Prosecco - and a wicked sense of humour (5/6 people found this helpful)

For those who read and enjoyed Cooking with Fernet Branca, this will be a welcome sequel. Gerald Samper, is still living in Tuscany and ghost writing biographies for well-known sports people, but this time his subject is Millie Cleat, a particularly obnoxious round-the-world sailor. Samper loathes his subject (as usual), apparently hating sport in all its forms, while being eternally doomed to write about it - a situation in which he finds his personal hell.

During her voyage, Millie Cleat manages to sabotage a hugely expensive international maritime expedition, but sailing right through the middle of the fleet of scientific vessels at a critical time causing them to abort their researches. She is blithly unaware of what she has done, but having irked the scientists, they themselves try to undermine her success by making a total fool of her, via Gerald Samper.

Samper is as precious as before, being a lover of exotic recipes (insects and obscure offal being among his recipe ingredients). He is pretentious and generally contemptuous of his fellow human beings, with few redeeming features, other than an acid tongue and a wicked sense of humour.

There are many humerous episodes in the book, some of which make the book dangerous reading for users of public transport. However, the humour is rather rarified and would not appeal to everybody, as the book is quite dense and requires a degree of concentration if it is to be fully appreciated.

As usual, I find myself noting the similarities between the Gerald Samper of James Hamilton Paterson and the Tarquin Winot of John Lanchester in his book, "The Debt to Pleasure". Both writers use the device of providing esoteric recipes in their novels, and the characters are so similar as to be almost indistinguishable. However, Paterson seems to be developing his character beyond his debut and I look forward to further novels in the same series.

Further Disjointed Adventures (5/6 people found this helpful)

If not as hilarious as cooking with Fernet Branca the further adventures of the rather lovable expat, Gerald Samper, are still great fun with his queeny remarks and (quite amusing) puns. In Fernet Branca Marta's alternate narrative doubled the humour in an event, Amazing Disgrace with its single narrative has more difficulty hiding a thin storyline. The fourth star is purely for the dinner party near the end, very dreamrealistic.

James Hamilton-Paterson

Reader Reviews:

Not amazing at all (0/0 people found this helpful)

EXCELLENT! (4/4 people found this helpful)

Cooking with Prosecco - and a wicked sense of humour (5/6 people found this helpful)

Further Disjointed Adventures (5/6 people found this helpful)

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