Cooking with Fernet Branca

My fault - I DID read the blurb and understood that this book was going to be a humourous book but I(wrongly)assumed that somewhere in this book there would still be real recipes and real information about living in Tuscany/Italy.
Because of this I was quite dissapointed as it could have been set anywhere in Europe, just a few token descriptions of the views and although I read it to the end, I couldn't warm to any of the characters; the 'plot' just seemed a bit silly and unbelievable and I found the whole thing a bit 'thin'

Unrepresentative tripe (0/2 people found this helpful)

This was so awful and hackneyed, I couldn't finish it. With all the cosmopolitan sophistication of Jeremy Clarkson expressed in the tone of Bertie Wooster, it will appeal to fans of 'Allo,'Allo and other unreconstructed Brits who think there's something fundamentally wrong with/funny about all foreigners.

I'm delighted to say, however, that it appears to be utterly unrepresentative of JH-P's output. Solely on the basis of Seven-Tenths, especially 'Sea Burial', it is clear that the author is a writer of very high quality. The work is by turns erudite, imaginative, arcane, beautiful, unexpected, weird, full of interesting and thought-provoking insights and is clearly the work of an original and iconoclastic thinker with a gift for evoking subtle, haunting atmospheres. His prose is never less than taut and elegant, and verges on the poetic with his exquisite descriptive style and imagery.

Hard to imagine anything more different from Fernet-Branca. Hamilton-Paterson should be much more widely known, but not for this one.

Typically English (2/4 people found this helpful)

The essences of British humour are what could crudely be described as 'foreigners and bodily functions'. Provided that you are comfy with the idea that foreigners are funny, and that indigestion is funny, then you'll enjoy this book enormously. To my eternal shame, I find both funny. This book is nicely written - JHP is a capable writer - and concentrates on the one-trick joke of bizarre foodstuffs and pretentious cooks. (The pretentious cooks thing has rather been done to death, but JHP's satire on 'Michelin starred' recipes is very well realised.)
Fernet Branca, BTW, is the most disgusting substance that I've ever put in my mouth. (I thought it was a made-up joke, until I saw a bottle in a bar a couple of years ago.) It is somewhere between dark blue and brown in colour, it is a limpid, treacly hand-grenade of a beverage with a taste, texture and appearance something like Duckhams 20-50 motor oil. IMHO.

It's like wading through minestrone... (4/9 people found this helpful)

When my Book Club decided to tackle a 'funny' book as a respite from Gide, Sagan, Murakami and Morrison, I put this forward as a suggestion. Swayed by the glowing reviews on the back cover and the fact that it had been Booker Longlisted, we decided to give it a go. It turned out to be a ghastly pastiche of Tom Sharpe crossed with Peter Mayle, devoid of any originality or subversiveness, predictable from page 1, poorly written with totally unbelievable characterisation and the only hint of Italy being the constant repetition of the word 'Tuscan'. It left a taste as foul as that of Fernet Branca, which in case you've never tried it is vile and usually administered to relieve upset stomachs. We all needed a large glass to recover from this noisome book. Don't even think about reading it! If I could give it minus stars as a rating, I would.

Lanchester-lite (1/3 people found this helpful)

Approach this book with low expectations and you'll be pleasantly surprised. Anything more and you risk disappointment. This is a pleasing diversion for the airport runway and railway carriage. You may even be able to squeeze out a couple of LOLs or maybe a LMAO. I managed the former.

I couldn't help thinking that Hamilton-Paterson has used "A Debt to Pleasure" as his template for this work and in particular for our hero, his narrator. In Gerald Samper we have a sort of non-psychopathic Tarquin Winot as our guide to life. On the whole he does this well enough. He's funny but he's not mad. Just eccentric. And perhaps, a little too contrived.

If you enjoyed this book but feel the need for slightly more nourishment, get John Lanchester's A Debt to Pleasure and see how it should be done.

James Hamilton-Paterson

Reader Reviews:

this is NOT a cookery book! (0/1 people found this helpful)

Unrepresentative tripe (0/2 people found this helpful)

Typically English (2/4 people found this helpful)

It's like wading through minestrone... (4/9 people found this helpful)

Lanchester-lite (1/3 people found this helpful)

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