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This is Carrie from the Ottawa Public Library
and this week I'm reviewing
Cooking with Fernet Branca
by James Hamilton- Patterson.
Gerald Samper is an effete
ex-pat Brit
who has moved to Tuscany to
continue ghostwriting books for celebrities.
All the while,
he believes himself to be a quality writer more than a ghostwriter
(which is true),
an excellent opera singer (which is untrue)
and it truly brilliant cook
(which is absolutely untrue).
Marta is Gerald's new next door neighbour.
She is a messy, loud woman from o mob family of a fictional Eastern European country,
and she is writing a musical score for a movie by
a famous Italian director
(something that Gerald does not entirely believe).
Each chapter alternates their voices,
and as the neighbours get to know each other
over copious amounts of Fernet Branca,
an Italian aperatif,
misunderstandings and entanglements of all sorts ensue.
black humour has rarely been so exquisitely well written as in this book.
James Hamilton-Patterson,
previously known as an award-winning non-fiction author,
is razor-sharp with his wit and completely unfettered by good taste.
Recipes like "Mussels with Chocolate" and
"Garlic and Fernet Branca Ice Cream"
pepper the book
and the absurd situations the characters get into are glorious.
Outrageous and literary, Cooking with Fernet Branca
by James Hamilton-Patterson,
is followed up by the books Amazing Disgrace
and Rancid Pansies.
This is Carrie
from the Ottawa Public Library
wishing you
good reads.