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Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I bought this book after travelling to Italy and falling in love with the place and its customs. However, I found it to be contrived and a thinly veiled rehash of a lot of other self help books out there. I guess I was hoping for something more.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I bought this book after travelling to Italy and falling in love with the place and its customs. However, I found it to be contrived and a thinly veiled rehash of a lot of other self help books out there. I guess I was hoping for something more.
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Summary: this is a wonderful book!
Review: I love this book! If only for the chapter about food, this book is worth much more than the $15 I paid for it.
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Summary: Wise!
Review: I stumbled across this gem in a bookstore. I love it. It's a nice spin on traditional self-help material, but more than that, the book is WISE. I'm impressed. Even though I've read and written a ton of stuff, this book stands out for its clairity and sheer joy. -- Joe Vitale www.MrFire.com
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Summary: A universal spiritual grounding
Review: In Doctor Mautner's beautifully written book she has simply yet interestingly described a road map for all of us seeking more happiness and more juice in our intensive, complex and high tech lives! And while she focusses on the Italian culture she does so in a way that makes it clear that a reader of any culture can take the cultural spices and seasonings of the Italian culture, add it to their own and crank up their life to a zesty dish to be savoured! The nine principles in this book will give you a spiritual grounding for life if practiced. I've had no plans to visit Italy before now -- it's become a must do!
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Summary: Contrived and Elitist
Review: In the epilogue, the author expresses her resentment of how "Hollywood" stereotypes Italians. Perhaps she hasn't noticed that the preceding chapters do exactly that, but instead illuminating all the "positive" sterotypes of italians. The Italian people are diverse just as Americans, and it is unfair many of them do not live the "dolce vita" as described. I am sure there is a decent amount of dysfunction, divorce, obesity, and other social problems in Italy as well, while the author describes it as a sort of "flawless" culture. I agree that Italy has a rich cultural heritage, but this book can seem contrived and elitist.
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Summary: Original and beautifully written
Review: La Dolce VitaDr. Raeleen Mautner's newest book, La Dolce Vita teaches us that the principles of a happy fulfilling life are already embedded in the Italian culture, there for all of us to grasp and make our own so that we may benefit from becoming a little bit Italian. By following Dr Mautner's lead, and applying the many suggestions she offers for attaining happiness the Mediterranean way, we all may become like her people-Italians who have long known how to live the sweet, happy life. By immersing ourselves in her step-by-step guide on to how to achieve happiness, Italian Style, we all may learn what I learned from personal experience with a La Dolce Vita psychiatrist who did so much for me in my own life. He was just the sort of Italian person Dr. Mautner describes and suggests that we emulate. As such he helped me more than any other psychiatrist by surrounding me, as Dr. Mautner will surround you, with his "know-how-to-live" aura, to the point that I glowed along with him. In short, this is a lyrical, beautifully written book, as well as the only self-help book I know of that reads like poetry. (For example, the opening pages alone are a literary masterpiece). Most highly recommended.
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Summary: Slow down and read this book
Review: We live a busy lifestyle full of hustle and bustle and fill our days with more and more, right up to the last minute. Yet we still seem to always be searching for something, the perfect diet, perfect job, the perfect way to find happiness. Raleen D'Agostino Mautner has provided that way to do just that, in an obvious and simple way. Slow down, eat well, and be happy. She then goes on to tell us how, based upon a lifestyle that all Italians, Italian Americans and those of mediterranean descent have always known. She gives us principles to live by and livens it with antecdots, stories and receipies. She combines food, physical health, mental health, love, and culture to create a menu for living La Dolce Vita... the sweet life. If you want to slow down and enjoy life, regardless of your national descent, then buy and read this book. If you are of Italian descent, then buy and read this book. It will reinforce and reconnect you with everything you grew up hearing and living, and will make you proud that you did. A wonderful book for all.
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Summary: The Sweetest Life
Review: Your impression of this book may be to think that it is merely an Italian flavor in the current bouquet garni of Francophile literature---Arbor's 'Joie de Vivre', Barone's 'Chic and Slim' and Olivier's 'Entre Nous--- touting a lifestyle that seeks the laissez-faire routine of the Old World rather than the stressful chaos of the New. It is all that and more---think of grafting "How to Think Like Leonardo Di Vinci" with the sentiment found in "A Year in Provence" or "Under the Tuscan Sun" and then imagine savoring a delicious fresh pasta and sauce delicately enhanced with white truffle complimented by a superb wine. You feel better already---you've taken a deep breath and actually relaxed and smelled the cappucino.
Rather than a wistful memoir of the quintessential Provencial village or a how-to book on keeping slim by eating the French way, Dr. Mautner looks at the whole being, not just one aspect. She begins her (and your) quest for the perfect, seemingly elusive lifestyle by exploring herself in relation to community rather than in the rugged individualism of Americanism. For Mautner, the core or hearth is her Italian American family where warmth and love promotes outward growth, yet blazes like a lodestar to maintain a secure sense of attachment and belonging. Like a superbly spiced puttanesca sauce, Mautner liberally seasons what she undoubtably knows (a very Italian trait) with anecdotes demonstrating the values learned from family: her grandmother's unflailing loyalty, her grandfather's amiability, etc.. She explains the Italian concept of the "bella figura", a phrase I remember my mother using to simply mean 'putting your best foot forward'--looking your best, treating yourself well, putting aside the "no pain, no gain" mentality for one of "this feels good and makes me feel better, so why not indulge on a daily basis? With interesting sidebars, Mautner encapsulizes just what it is about Italians that make them seem so earthy, easy-going and yet, oh-so-worldly. Diet and exercise are touched upon---a scant amount of recipes are included, but this is not the primary emphasis of the text. Mautner analyses the self and the way it integrates with family, with friends and with lovers. Above all, the book and its step-by-step advice emulates both a stimulating walk along Florence's busy streets and a leisurely bike ride in the Unbrian hills: it prods yet quiets.
Once you read the book through, you will want to keep a copy on your nighttable or desk to refer to often--to refresh your memory and recapture the feeling you want to maintain. La Dolce Vita is all mapped out--you need only shrug off your inhibitions and follow Mautner's guidelines. If you are lucky enough to already be an Italian American, as I am, you will savor the memories and bask with pride at your heritage. Recommended to all those who want the Sweetest life.
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