Cooking With Fernet Branca [Paperback]

James Paterson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 2, 2005

Gerald Samper, an effete Englishman, lives on a hilltop in Tuscany. He is a ghostwriter for celebrities, and a foodie, whose weird tastes include 'Mussels in Chocolate and Garlic' and 'Fernet Branca Ice Cream'. His idyll is shattered by the arrival of Marta, a vulgar woman from a former Soviet republic now run by gangsters, notably male members of her family. She is a composer in a neo-folk style who claims to be writing a score for a trendy Italian film director. The neighbours' lives disastrously intertwine. The entourages of the rock star and the director come and go; mysterious black helicopters bring news of mayhem in Voynova, Marta's homeland; and along the way the English obsession with Tuscany is satirized mercilessly.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Usually writers taking a holiday from their serious work will use a pseudonym (DeLillo as Cleo Birdwell), but British novelist Hamilton-Paterson (Gerontius, etc.), who lives in Italy, bravely serves a very funny sendup of Italian-cooking-holiday-romance novels, without any camouflage. Written from the alternating perspectives of two foreigners who have bought neighboring Tuscan houses, the book has no plot to speak of beyond when-will-they-sleep-together. Gerald Samper is an effete British ghost writer of sportsperson biographies (such as skier Per Snoilsson's Downhill All the Way!); neighbor Marta is a native Voynovian (think mountainous eastern bloc) trying to escape her rich family's descent into postcommunist criminality—by writing a film score for a "famous" pornographer's latest project. Each downs copious amounts of the title swill and carps at the reader about the other's infuriating ways: Gerald sings to himself in a manner that Marta then parodies for the film; Gerald relentlessly dissects the Voyde cuisine Marta serves him, all the while sharing recipes for his own hilariously absurd cuisine. Rock stars, helicopters, the porn director and son, and Marta's mafia brother all make appearances. The fun is in Hamilton-Paterson's offhand observations and delicate touch in handling his two unreliable misfits as they find each other—and there's lots of it. (Oct.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Review

"'Wickedly witty... Anyone who does not add this hilarious divertimento to their summer reading list should be put on a forced diet of Gerald's inimitable Alien Pie.' Michael Dibdin, Guardian; 'A deliciously nasty farce set in [Hamilton-Paterson's] adopted Tuscany... Cooking with Fernet Branca had me laughing out loud and uproariously. All Tuscanites should read it, preferably over a plate of stewed otter chunks in lobster sauce.' Sunday Telegraph; 'Larded with bitter satire and piquant wit, at the expense, often, of its readers and their dreams of Italy... I laughed out loud several times a chapter' The Times"

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Faber & Faber (June 2, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0571220916
• ISBN-13: 978-0571220915
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,931,893 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Forget the recipes, just read the book!!, September 19, 2004

By 

Peter T. Dewey (Sydney, Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cooking With Fernet Branca (Paperback)

Readers accustomed to those travel stories whereby foreigners fall in love with a tumbledown old house in France or Italy and then lovingly restore it with the help of a bunch of well meaning but unreliable locals will love this new novel.

Essentially a satire on the travel memoir genre, 'Cooking' is the story of Gerald and Marta, a pair of ill matched neighbours who live in a tiny village in the Tuscan hills. He is a English snob who ghostwrites for a living and cooks implausible recipes (thoughtfully included, but not recommended!!) as a vocation. Marta is an East European composer of film scores.

The story is told be each of the characters in turn (each in the first person) as their lives become increasingly and reluctantly intertwined.

You will guess the ending long before it arrives, but it won't matter at all. You'll be laughing too hard to care!

Beautifully written and highly recommended.

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Witty delight of a novel, January 3, 2005

By 

A. Kelly "lorrainecooke" (Ireland) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cooking With Fernet Branca (Paperback)

I opened this one with trepidation after avoiding it for quite awhile. I heard about it thru' a Booker Prize programme on a BBC (UK) channel, in which "ordinary folk" were given the duty of reading every book on the Booker Prize long list, to see if their choices tallied with the judges as to who made it onto the short list.

This was the one book that all the ordinary reviewers agreed on as being a pure delight to read. I tend to the view that all Booker books are so very "literary", with such scant regard to minor details as interesting characters, plot and story progresssion as to be near unreadable. So this was SUCH a pleasant surprise (as was the eventual winner "The Line Of Beauty" another recommended, highly readable novel.)

So acidly funny that I laughed out loud frequently and raced thru' it to (regretfully) finish the novel in two days.

The characters of Gerry and Marta are complete grotesques and the satirical and accurate sideswipes at such targets as pretentious film directors, modern "celebrities" and the Tuscan idyll memoir are mordantly witty. A joy!

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Delightful satire set in the hills of Italy., January 28, 2005

By 

Green Ibis "msiv" (Amsterdam, Netherlands) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cooking With Fernet Branca (Paperback)

Best thing about the book is the dual perspective it is written from - alternate sections are written in the first person of two different people, Gerald, a ghostwriter, and Marta, a film music composer. They start off thinking the worst of each other, by and by modifying their opinions only slightly - thinking the other is a well-meaning but blundering, drunken fool.
It is an outrageously comic commentary on a wide variety of subjects such as filmmaking, possible explanations for UFO-sightings, rebels from ex-Soviet bloc countries, and so on.
Gerald being a self-professed "great cook" creates these ridiculous tongue-in-cheek recipes like "Chocolate coated and deep-fried mussels" with a perfectly straight face. Extraordinary quantities of Fernet Branca, a bitter Italian liqueur, is drunk throughout by all the characters, and all of Gerald's recipes contain Fernet Branca, giving the book its incongruous title.