The Kitch Lit Series: In Over My Head

My diversion to Hogwarts put a pause on the Kitch Lit series, but the purple-spined Cooking with Fernet Branca by James Hamilton-Paterson called out to me from the bookshelf so loudly that I had to listen.

Cooking with Fernet Branca is kitch lit adjacent, with a healthy spoonful of satire thrown in. Gerald, an Englishman who makes his living as a ghostwriter for sports stars and celebrities, acquires a house in the hills of Tuscany hoping to find inspiration in the solitude. Gerald’s isolation is quickly disrupted by the arrival of Marta, a composer who hails from a fictitious Soviet country. Cue the culture clash. 

One such clash is Marta and Gerald’s opposing culinary sensibilities. Gerald fancies himself a gourmand and finds Marta’s hearty, winter survival dishes far beneath him. Gerald’s recipes err more on the unique side, garlic ice cream anyone? But one thing the two share? A penchant for drinking Fernet Branca. If not the drink itself, at least the effect of the drink.  

Hamilton-Paterson uses alternating perspectives, switching narration every other chapter. We learn about Gerald and Marta through their own eyes and through the eyes of the other. It’s a smart technique that serves to underscore Gerald and Marta’s differences. The actual plot of the novel is a bit loose. Boy bands, mafia-esque crime families and the filming of a movie that turns out to be essentially soft-core porn all come into play. Hamilton-Paterson is a great writer. His prose flows beautifully. And while I appreciated that aspect of the book, I could not shake the feeling that true enjoyment of the novel's satire was floating over my head, just out of reach of actual comprehension. I will gladly admit intellectual defeat when it happens and, in this case, Hamilton-Paterson has crafted a story that I am not cut out to appreciate. Cooking with Fernet Branca is not a bad book, but I do not share enough similarities with the upper-crust Fraiser Cranes of the world to truly enjoy it. I am happily back in Hogwarts now, reading at the middle school level to which I am clearly more suited.