Bella Figura

    Bella Figura: How to Live, Love and Eat the Italian Way is a light-hearted, diverting read, one for those days when you feel like coasting.

    It's an account of a year Kamin Mohammadi spent in Florence, licking her wounds after the loss of a job and the end of a relationship, and yes, there's a degree of transformation as she learns to eat better, feel more comfortable in her own skin, re-establish her sense of self after the bruising events which led up to her move, but beyond a few basic recipes and tips about celebrating beauty in all things, it's less lifestyle manual than 'love in the sun' memoir. Maybe I'm just getting grumpy in my old age but I found the account of an affair with an unsuitable man - to which much space is given - tiresome; others may be more enthralled.

    Pleasant as the book is, I was left wondering how much of its detail is faithful record and how much is 'creative re-enactment', in other words a collage of events, conversations, observations, all based on fact but assembled with artistic licence. It doesn't matter either way, of course, for it's the author's story to tell as she chooses, and she does so nicely, but I sensed a degree of convenient conflation which leads me to think about authenticity in its wider sense in the genre as a whole. 

Comments

[LizF]

I read this a couple of months ago and wondered what you would make of it.

It wasn't quite what I had expected - I was under the impression that it would be about the Italian lifestyle which is something that really appealed to me as a long-term Italophile - and the relationship stuff was not what I wanted to read so I ended up missing out sections of the book.

[Cornflower]

Exactly, Liz. I too was expecting much more 'Italian philosophy for good living', and I almost abandoned the book when the relationship stuff took centre stage. Title-wise, I think it's been hung on a misleading peg: a basic story presented as more than it actually is.

[Annie D]

Absolutely agree with your review. I jumped ship half-way through.

[Cornflower]

Interesting, Annie, that that was the point at which we all stumbled.