Amazing Disgrace

If you read and loved 'Cooking with Fernet Branca' you will undoubtedly welcome the return of a hapless and comic Gerald Samper (this time swinging Prosecco) and his recipes, still very funny but somewhat darker and even nastier

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

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!

Cooking with Prosecco - and a wicked sense of humour (8/9 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:

Welcome back, Gerald (0/0 people found this helpful)

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

Cooking with Prosecco - and a wicked sense of humour (8/9 people found this helpful)

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

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