Review: La Cucina

Ah, Sicily: land of great food, great wine, and large women who enjoy them. Rosa Fiore is one such woman, who leaves her quaint, anecdote-laden family farm for an even quainter city after the murder of her lover. Many years later, her drab life gets a breath of fresh air when L’Inglese, her English lover, ignites her passion in the kitchen and in the bedroom.

Genre: Novel

Plot: This was one of the rare books that I initially disliked but grew to enjoy as the story progressed. Usually, if I don’t like something within 50 pages, I put it down. I don’t care how famous it is or how much controversy it’s caused; if it’s not gripping me within 50 pages I’m not going to read it. By the end of the first section, I couldn’t really see the point of reading on (everything seemed so neatly tied together), but I’m certainly glad I did. This charming, almost quaint novel actually packed some deep surprises by the end!

Structure: The novel is told by Rosa Fiore in the first person. It’s divided unequally between 4 periods of her life, named after the four seasons in nature, with the bulk of it occurring in section 3. Perhaps the best choice on the author’s part is that the majority of the story happens to Rosa in middle age. In a world where staying 17 forever is the ultimate fantasy, this is like a breath of fresh, hormone-free air. The book also employs in media res, my absolute favorite literary device when used correctly and my most abhorred when not. Thankfully, Prior did it right.

Execution and Style: Prior’s first chapters start strong, but as I mentioned earlier, by the end of the first chapter it seemed oddly flat. There was no hook to keep reading other than the bulk of pages behind my hands. Only in the middle did she begin to throw out chunks of suspense and unanswered questions.

Also, there’s a fine line between authors building a sense of authenticity when mixing two languages (in this case, English and Italian) and, conversely, just coming off as know-it-alls. Prior fell in the latter half. In fact, her constant switching between the two actually caused some mental disorientation. I kept asking myself, why is this Italian woman thinking in English?

Scores of characters make an appearance throughout, but remarkably, none feel too flat (even the pervert bank manager, who emerges only to masturbate in the adjacent window to the action). This large cast of comical, quaint characters—along with the dreamy, larger-than-life events that kept occurring (a fire caused by a sex dream which gets the whole town horny?)—almost enticed me to go off in search of an Italian farm to work on. But the most important secondary character of all was the food constantly streaming from Rosa’s hands. Prior did a wonderful job of interjecting long, descriptive recipes in prose form; I’m pretty sure I actually salivated at one point.

Theme: Large Italian women cooking large Italian meals pretty much sums this one up. But if that’s not enough for you, there’s also the Mafia, libraries, chattery grandmas, horny grandpas, pizza millionaires, clairvoyant Siamese twins, and James Bond-like English spies/lovers. And the food. Did I mention the food?

Read This If: you love Italian cooking, or are looking for a “feel good” type of story but lent Chocolat to a friend. A word of caution, though; if you’re expecting a serious historical fiction novel about true-life 1960s Italy, this isn’t for you. Seriously, it’s a great read that’s just quiet enough for a relaxing break between suspense/thriller novels but wth just enough excitement to be worth your while.

3 out of 5 stars.

Other Works:
Cabaret
Nectar
Ardor

If you liked this, you might also like:
Joanne Harris’ Chocolat
Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat Pray Love
Natsumi Ando and Miyuki Kobayashi’s Kitchen Princess series (manga)