I can sum up this one in two words - wickedly hilarious. It had me laughing out loud, something I do unfortunately all too rarely whilst reading these days. It manages to poke fun at some recent cultural obsessions - boy bands, UFOs, Tuscan villas, cooking, DIY projects, filmmaking, sports celebrities, the new Europe and issues of gay mens innate tastefulness. The book is a great diversion from the everyday humdrum - a tasty morsel of wit and humour that left me wanting more. I think I will check out more of Hamilton-Patersons works - I like his style (and his subtle and tasteless use of bodily gasses).

I finished the book and then went to find out more about the author. I had never heard of him before choosing it from the back pages of a book that had brief synopses of books published by Europa Editions. Turns out this guy is sort of a loner which is fine by me. He has written works of poetry and some non-fiction. His first work of fiction, Gerontius, a reconstruction of a journey made by the composer Sir Edward Elgar along the River Amazon in 1923, won a Whitbread Award for First Novel in 1989. But what got him bonus points from me is that he is friends with Ronald Blythe (aged 98 years), author of Akenfield, one of my favorite books (a literary portrait of an English village as told by the villagers themselves via oral history interviews). Any friend of Ronald Blythe is a friend of mine.

A fun journey with two unreliable narrators. A wonderful send up of I bought a Tuscan farm novels, Englishman abroad, Cooking novels and Italian film makers. And all manner of other things. I liked Marta more than Gerald and would have read any number of books about her. Satire really. Mindblowing recipes such as Mussels in chocolate sauce. But i did make a very sucessful Coca cola and Fernt Branca cake.

I admit it, I was click-baited into this by the headline/title and had no idea where the book would take me.
However, as I hold Fernet Branca in high esteem, the temptation was irresistible, and as the saying goes, “never lay down a temptation, it may not come again”.
Once in my eternal youth I travelled through Uganda, with a bottle of Fernet Branca held closely to my heart. At time of travel a cholera outbreak was closing shops and markets at the leisurely speed of one mile/hour behind me, giving me a day´s head start. Thus, luckily escaping it, I am a true believer in the virtues of Fernet Branca, preventive as well as healing, not to mention it´s social aspects.
That was my personal prologue …



”Under the Tuscan Sun”, right outside Viareggio, on the brink of a ravine, there are two old houses with a, sometimes, fabulous view to the Mediterranean.
By the sleaziness of the local real estate agent, they were both sold off as “secluded and tranquil, “and the neighbor rarely visits””
Just the kind of house Gerry the somewhat successful ghostwriter and Marta the composer from Voynovia would settle down for.

It soon turns out that tranquility will be hard to find, and the neighbor is very much at home.
Even strained from the very beginning, both parties are eager to maintain a good neighbor relationship, if only the other part would leave me in peace!

The game is afoot, and we get to learn Gerry and Marta from each other´s perspective, both guessing and imagining what the neighbor is like, and both being wrong most of the time.

I´m not going to spoil your fun, for fun it is when two people of very different backgrounds are trying to figure what the other part is up to. The very British stiff upper lip collides with an ex-Soviet exiled “fear the worst from the West”, and even the pictures are caricatured, they do not seem that far from reality.

In no particular order, you will encounter a famous film director, a boyband front man, a mysterious night-flyer and a few more who are needed to make the storyline possible.
Add to this a handful of very interesting recipes, recipes in which Fernet Branca will play a not unimportant part, Voynian delicacies and some good advice on DIY. And not least a generous share of … Fernet Branca.

Sometimes silly, sometimes good-humored, but never boring, this meant-for-entertainment-only-novel gets a solid 4 stars.

Hamilton-Paterson flawlessly folds Into this souffle many ingredients seemingly disparate, resulting in a desire for more. Told in alternating voices, the plot soars hilariously. Marta, a composer from Eastern Europe, and Gerald, a ghost-writing ex-pat from England, live in mutual disharmony, misdirection and misunderstanding on a Tuscan hilltop. It helps, but is not necessary, for the reader to be somewhat knowledgeable about Pier Paolo Pasolini, East European mafia, gourmet cooking. Add to this, Boy Bands, UFOs, ghostwritten "autobiographies," Italian filmmaking. Not since "Somebody is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe" have there been recipes of such escalating ludicrousness. Hilarious! I'm gratified to learn that there are at least two books that follow this one.

A well-judged early Xmas gift from a friend, this went down very easily and quickly - unlike the dishes given in the text...

Charmingly structured, the book progresses by batting us back and forth between the narrations of its two idiosyncratic, not-entirely-reliable, and frequently intoxicated main characters. It's a clever device and used well here - it gradually directs the reader by approximations, all written with plenty of wit, often of the absurd variety.

It reminded me rather of Tom Sharpe - though without the enthusiastic crudity that Sharpe tends to employ. Definitely recommended.

This book was laugh out loud funny.

January book club selection. Inspired silliness in this farce centered around a British writer who rents a home in Tuscany and his subsequent encounters with an unexpected neighbor. A plot unfolds, and supporting characters are introduced, but none of it really matters.

Gerald's musings are the heart of the book, which satirizes expat culture through his outlandishly pretentious worldview. Some sections land better than others, but it contains some of the funniest passages about food, cooking, and the act of eating I have ever read.

Like Gerald's recipes, the humor may be an acquired taste. Potential readers may wish to first sample from any of the book's "Gerald" sections before proceeding. Reading this reminded me of another polarizing book, Confederacy of Dunces. In both, much of the humor comes from the perpetual indignation of the main character at slights (both real and perceived) and their ongoing disappointment in the rest of society. And also fart jokes.

3.5 stars rounded up to 4 for literally making me LOL. Recommended for: food and travel bloggers, people who find food and travel blogs obnoxious.

Cooking with Fernet Branca by James Hamilton-Paterson - OK

Gerald Samper is your stereotypical effete Englishman: He's pompous and self deluded, believes he is a passable tenor singing arias as he concocts his cordon bleu dishes. What he actually is, is a ghost writer of celebrity biographies who buys a remote Tuscan villa having been told his nearest neighbour only visits for one month a year.

This neighbour has been told exactly the same thing. She is Marta and comes from an ex Soviet Republic. She's rented her villa in order to write the film score for a new Italian film.

Neither sees the other as they really are or maybe that should be 'as they see themselves'. Whilst not hilariously funny, this does lead to an amusing story as events unravel for both neighbours.

Oh and the Fernet Branca of the title has a role of its own. Included in most of Gerald's inedible recipes, it is ever present throughout.

I picked this up on a whim after seeing another book by the same author on a display table at Vroman's. It's an easy-read - the plot is negligible, but the characters are funny and the dual first-person narration is delightfully bookish and chatty. The main character is an (implicitly) gay English ex-pat author in Italy, and a bit of a stereotype in broad outline - but the delight is in the details here. An extra pleasure for those with Anglomane tendencies. Overall, it's a book that is easy to pick-up, easy to put-down, but likely to be picked-up again. I borrowed the sequel (Amazing Disgrace) when I returned it. My review should follow. . .

This darkly comedic satire on English expats in love with Italy has some truly toe curling recipe ideas. Mortadella icing anyone? It's an enjoyable romp through two self-employed creatives encounter with each other and a world-famous Italian director, fallen on hard enough times to be making a film with some very racy content. Well-written but just a little too outrageously plotted for me.

one of the funniest books i've ever read.

"Incidentally, this is the only recipe I know [for "Otter with Lobster Sauce"] that is associated with a curse."
other recipes include "smoked cat" and "mussels in chocolate".