NEWS Bollettino Highlights In Touch Calendar Winners

WEBSITE REVIEW: La Bella Figura: A Field Guide to the Italian Mind By Beppe Severgnini Broadway Books, 2006. 217 pp. In La Bella Figura, Beppe Severgnini explores Italian culture and society in a humorous and satirical style that is both entertaining and perceptive. Written as a hypothetical tour through Italy, this book offers the reader an insightful and witty look into "the Italian mind." The reader follows the author on a tour from Malpensa to Crema with stops along the way in Milan, Tuscany, Rome, Naples, and Sardinia. In each location, Severgnini comments on Italian customs, traditions, and habits. Severgnini clearly sets out to deconstruct the images and beliefs we have about Italians, often poking fun not only at his fellow citizens but our stereotypes of them. He writes about a variety of subjects, from airports to hotels, restaurants to stores, from television to politics, the garden to the beach. Often, he makes pronouncements about his country and its citizens, which he supports with humorous details. For example, he writes, "[Italians] are consummate professionals of culinary consumption . . . We don't think that a sauce is tasty, or that an olive oil is good. We know it is. We may lie, of course, out of politeness or calculation. But that, too, is a touch of artistry, if you think about it . . . Confident food-related judgment derives from our unaffected approach to the table. If there are any tense faces in this restaurant, it's only because of the check." Often, Severgnini's humor masks more serious subjects as he pokes fun at his fellow countrymen. He is not afraid of pointing out a paradox or hypocrisy. For instance, he remarks that ". . . Italians' signature quality - our passion for beauty - is in danger of becoming our number one defect. All too often, it prevents us from choosing what is good." He goes on to describe attractive cell phone saleswomen who "can't tell a cell phone from a remote control" but who are successful because "people prefer good looks to good answers." Later in the book, he goes on to write a humorous description of Italy's infamous mammoni, "mother-fixated children afraid to fend for themselves." These children often live with their parents and rarely have enough ambition to venture out on their own. He reflects "Italy's mammoni point to other extenuating circumstances. There aren't enough homes to rent, its hard to find a job, a new family costs. I'd add to the list the agreeably irresponsible lifestyle - encouraged by television, blessed by advertising, and tolerated by society - that has produced a new category of individual, the twenty-first century parentally modified (male) neo-mammone." This criticism of the mammoni extends beyond the over-protective mother to society as a whole. Commenting on the automobile's place in Italian society, Severgnini notes that cars "are an extension of the womb that comes after the stroller and before the easy chair." The following paragraphs, while focusing on Italian automobiles, offer commentary on social status, vanity, romance, and privacy, all with his signature wit and humor. While Severgnini's forte is satirical humor, the reader gets a sense that the author appreciates and loves his fellow countrymen. His humor never reaches the point of insensitivity or biting commentary. And often it has a light touch, which has a sense of admiration to it. Describing the common belief that Italians do most of their talking with their hands, he writes, "Italian gestures are many and effective. They have intrigued anthropologists, photographers, cartoonists, and linguists." He writes of the Italian work ethic, "If you want to find out how hardworking Italians are, look behind the homes in Sardinia, under the electricity pylons in Milan, or around major-highway intersections. You'll find plots that are as carefully groomed as a doll's tresses. Vegetables gardens exist in other countries. In some they are a necessity, in others, a hobby. In Italy, they are a stubborn reminder of the feudal economy, providing an illusion of self-sufficiency, a consolation in retirement, and a protest to county with too many mountains and bridges." La Bella Figura was bestseller in Italy where Severgnini is a columnist for one of Italy's leading newspapers, Corriere della Sera. He has also been the Italian correspondent for The Economist and has written the international Ciao America, a humorous book about his time in the United States. (I have reviewed Ciao America in a previous column.) For those of us in the United States fed stereotypes of Italians from the movies or television, Severgnini's book is a refreshing look into modern Italy. His style shows his love and admiration for his country while being brutally honest about its shortcomings. This is what we should expect from an author who begins his book with a quote from Luigi Barzini that reads, "At this point, being honest with oneself is the highest form of patriotism." Italian Catholic Federation, 675 Hegenberger Road, Suite 230, Oakland CA 94621 tel: 888/ICF-1924; 510/633-9058; fax: 510/633-9758; Email: info@icf.org Website designed by HYPERSPHERE