Cooking with Fernet Branca by james hamilton-paterson

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

March 17,2025

I had put off reading this book thinking that it would be a book similar to others about people buying houses in Tuscany or France and making food and drinking wine. I was wrong. I found it to be hilarious and wonderful.

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PotatoKujo

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

March 17,2025

This was just not really my thing but not bad

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WishIhadaName

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

March 17,2025

This book came along at a time when I really needed to laugh. I read it in two sittings, and laughed like a loon. Delightful. Thanks, Steve!!

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Pearlonthesea

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

March 17,2025

hilarious

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Fummiga

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

March 17,2025

Deutsche Rezension aus HansBlog.de:

Lewis-Hamilton Paterson erzählt hochintelligent-witzig von zwei Ausländern auf einem einsamen Hügel in der Toscana. Der Autor spielt mit Toscana- und Dolce-Vita-Klischees. Der Witz entsteht nicht aus der Handlung oder aus den Dialogen, sondern aus selbstironischen und gebildeten Bemerkungen des Ich-Erzählers und aus den absurden Rezepten für geräucherte Katze und ähnliche Delikatessen.
Der Humor geht jedoch fast unter in den Mängeln des Romans: Der Autor erzählt eine sehr unrealistische, fast jamesbondige Geschichte mit unerwarteten Hubschrauberlandungen im Hinterhof, Begegnungen mit Popstars und Kultregisseuren, ein Seitenstrang spielt in einer slawischen Familie.
Die Beziehung zwischen den beiden Hauptfiguren ist völlig unklar, die weibliche Hauptfigur insgesamt bleibt gänzlich undefiniert; und doch riecht man das Ende auf 250 Seiten Entfernung. Als Hauptfiguren kredenzt Hamilton-Paterson den Autor Gerald Samper und eine Komponistin – als ob es der Verfasser es nicht schaffte, über den Tellerrand zu blicken und alltäglichere Menschen zu beschreiben.
Assoziationen:
Hamilton-Paterson setzte Gerald Sampers Geschichte fort in den Büchern Amazing Disgrace (2006) und Rancid Pansies (2008). Ich habe Amazing Grace angelesen – es trieb den Aspekt "Selbstverliebtes Geschwafel ohne Handlung" scheinbar auf die Spitze, die zweite Hauptfigur Marta war scheint's nicht mehr dabei; da habe ich das Buch schnell weggelegt und den dritten Teil nicht mehr probiert.
Keinerlei Parallelen gibt es zu Hamilton-Patersons Philippinen-Buch Wasserspiele.

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Mystic_Dreamer

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

March 17,2025

I hesitated to give this book 5 stars only because I may just be so relieved to have enjoyed a book after a long succession of vanilla before it. But after looking backwards through my list of books I've read until finding the last book I enjoyed so much, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, I've decided that, yes, it earned those stars.

The book is told from the points of view of two alternating narrators who are neighbors in Tuscany. Gerald is an uptight narcissist who loves his solitude and is therefore disappointed when Marta moves in next door. Each of them is convinced that it is the other that is butting into his/her life. Also, each of them considers the other a drunk. Gerald is hilarious and Marta is adorable. Over the course of the book I grew to trust Marta more. I'm not sure if that was supposed to happen.

This book was just perfect, and I would recommend it to anyone.

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maingoman

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

March 17,2025

Whatever else we can say about James Hamilton-Paterson, he is a very funny man. If you ever found yourself in the Italian countryside gazing at the villa next door and wondering who lives there and who, for gosh sakes, is coptering in and out, after reading this novel, you may very well decide you don’t really want to know. It may be entangling, and may, after all, be the end of all you hold dear.

Gerald Samper, British biographer to the rich and famous, buys an old villa in need of repair in Tuscany’s Apuan Alps region. He is told, as is his nearby neighbor, that the owner of the nearby villa is rarely in residence so his quest for privacy and solitude is guaranteed. Of course, nothing could be farther from the truth. In fact, the resident of the villa he can see from his own is none other than a well-to-do refugee from a Soviet republic, with all her entangling connections.

Samper likes cooking, and we are treated to recipes inspired by the abundant local produce, but dreamt up entirely within the convoluted confines of Samper’s own twisted mind: Mussels in Chocolate, say, or Baked Pears in Gorgonzola with Cinnamon Cream, Lampreys in Sherry, Alien Pie, which features smoked cat mixed with baby beets, nasturtium leaves, pureed prunes, and green bacon (what on earth…?), or my personal favorite, Tuna Stuffed with Prunes in Marmite Butter. But Samper deprecates (with good reason) the specialties his neighbor offers him, delicacies delivered direct from the former Soviet republic of Voynovia. As described by Samper:

”…brightly colored voynovian objects that were delicate to the same extent that traffic cones are. There were awesome pellets like miniature doughnuts wrapped in candied angelica leaf and injected with chili sauce. Others looked like testicles set in dough. I gathered these were pigeon’s eggs and couldn’t catch her name for them although the phrase that came to me immediately was Christ on a Tricycle. Spearmint eggs?”

But this book is not about cooking, despite the title. It is about living the good life in Tuscany among other artists—writers, musicians, filmmakers, realtors--magicians of all stripes. And what of Fernet Branca? It is a digestif concocted in Italy that, given as a gift to the new arrivals of Le Roccie, is purchased a second time to return the courtesy, and becomes a central feature of the misunderstandings among the residents and visitors there. It is described in Wikipedia as having the flavor of “black-licorice-flavored Listerine."

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