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Summary: Just as funny in English as the original.
Review: Beppe may be the most important Italian explorer of America since Veranzano, well at least the most amusing. As a visitor to the US for a year, he leads us through the wilds of American cultural peculiarities and excesses, from "servers" in restaurants who want to be your best friend to mattress super-stores, where the salesmen encourage you to jump on the beds to try them out. Always good-spirited about his observations, he allows us to see many things in America we think are quite normal from a very different perspective, one that makes for a very funny book. I read the original book "Un Italiano in America" several years ago and wasn't sure if the English version would translate well. I am happy to report that Beppe is as funny in English as he is in Italian. My only criticism is that the book is based on experiences from more than 7 years ago, and so while we have been enthusiastically exporting the many objects of his humorous observations to the rest of the world, we have been busy creating material for another book. Come 'on back Beppe, you need to check out vanity license plates, rap music, cappuccino with your Big Mac, and, of course, Dr. Phil.
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Summary: The Ice Cubes
Review: Businesses put a load of ice cubes in drinks, cause the ice costs less than the drink. We get used to it at restaurants, and start doing it at home.
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Summary: America from the outside
Review: Ciao, America! is fun, but that's not why Americans should read it. For us, the real fascination of Severgnini's book is the perspective it provides, one English-speaking travel readers seldom get. Instead of finding out what another country looks like to an American, Brit, or Australian, we get to find out what America looks like to an Italian. It's a surprising experience, and I, at least, found myself filled with both sympathy and envy for the Europeans who have been reading outsider perspectives for decades. Which isn't to say this book is always easy to get. Lots of passages leave Americans saying "As opposed to what?" Will everyone who reads this book understand why Severgnini lists the cost of things like hooking up his telephone and getting a social security card? And I admit to being totally mystified about the reasons Severgnini's mattress-buying experience was so traumatic. He went to a mattress store, inspected his options, picked one (without thinking to measure it first, unfortunately), and bought it. This seems natural to me. How do they buy mattresses in Italy? This book should have a second writer for the American edition - someone who can explain what other options there are. The Italian edition should have a second writer, too - one to explain where Severgnini went wrong. Every American reader of the book will cringe extravagantly when the author pays sticker price for an automobile - there should be a footnote in the book explaining why you don't do that. The Italian edition also needs to explain why you never rent a house when the ad says "grace and charm." All Americans know that "grace," in real estate terms, means "tiny, inconvenient rooms where no furniture will ever fit" and that "charm" means "kitchen and bathroom built in an unfortunate era for appliances and décor - say, 1954 or 1976 - and never remodeled since." Apparently foreigners don't know this. Someone should tell them. Before they get here, or at any rate before they sign the lease. Severgnini also misses a few points. He notes the widespread existence of tributes to Spam - t-shirts, hats, holiday notecards - but takes it at face value. He doesn't realize we don't actually like the stuff, or eat it; we buy the t-shirts because they're campy and funny, not because to express undying devotion. He claims that people in America drive 55, and I'm willing to entertain the notion that in Washington maybe they do, but to me that sounds like a tourist opportunity right there: go to Washington and see rustic natives drive 55! But even when it's wrong, Ciao is fascinating, sometimes just for the way it's wrong. Americans rarely get an external review of our country, and when we do, it's hopelessly biased. Severgnini's approach to American culture is just like any ex-pat's, anywhere in the world - he has that same mixture of appreciation, frustration, and confusion that makes living-abroad memoirs so appealing. And for those Americans who are a bit sensitive to criticism, don't worry. Severgnini may not understand us, or like everything about us, but he certainly appreciates us. Read this book. Savor it. It's fun, funny, and surprisingly interesting. And every American should, at least once, have the experience of hearing Washington, D.C. described as friendly.
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Summary: Ciao, Signor Severgnini!
Review: First of all, the author's name is BEPPE SEVERGNINI. Not Beppe Severgnia, Bepe Vergnini or Betty Sevegnini, as some American utility and credit card companies would have it. The imperviousness of Americans to correct spelling is one of the things that drove Severgnini nuts during his year in Washington, D.C. as a correspondent for the Milanese newspaper Corriere della Sera. Among the other things were peanut butter; the hostility of American drivers toward other drivers who want to enter their lane of traffic; the inability of king-size American mattresses to fit minuscule Georgetown townhouses; and waiters who are anxious to tell you their first names. "Ciao, America!" is Severgnini's witty, appreciative but far from uncritical assessment of America and the American national character, following up on a similar book he wrote about the English. Though he does get some things wrong--for example, Americans don't obey speed limits as faithfully as he thinks, and he doesn't understand that the Spam memorabilia craze is an ironic kitsch phenomenon, rather than a straightforward tribute to a beloved food--he gets a great deal startlingly right. And he's honest enough to write the following: "Italians don't copy the important things about America, such as patriotism, optimism, and a sense of personal responsibility. Our passion, which is shared by three-quarters of the world's population, is to imitate the superficial aspects of American life, which include vocabulary, soft drinks, jeans, hairstyles, films, and songs." Tart, charming and at times unexpectedly poignant--particularly in the "Five Years Later" postscript chapter that demonstrates you can't revisit the past--"Ciao, America!" makes piquant and fascinating reading for any American. It would be great fun to read it right after finishing "Under the Tuscan Sun"!
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Summary: Wait for the Paperback
Review: I agree with the previous reviewer. The text is a bit light for a full hardback, i.e., expensive, volume. Realizing that the English edition follows the book's appearance in Italy, it now seems somewhat dated. Taking place in 1994/95, parts are like reading last year's newspaper. Bill Clinton is no longer in the White House and the Democrats are now the majority in the Senate. Some of the ground covered is well-worn and has been brought up by numerous authors and other European observers. Yes, Americans are fat. Yes, we eat disgusting junk food. His French friend was "nauseated" after observing what fans at a basketball game ate? Then go back to Provence! Bill Bryson, a Yankee himself, does a better job of describing his native land's dietary idiosyncracies. At points the details get a bit dry. I don't care if Americans mispell the author's name. That seems a bit self serving. Discussions on how an Italian views the machinations of Washington politicians don't interest most Americans. A more fitting subtitle would be: "An Italian Discovers Life Inside the Washington Beltway." Georgetown is hardly Main Street, USA. The above criticism aside, I must say that the author has produced a light hearted and, at times, humorous look at the difficulties of establishing a household in Washington through European eyes. It's a quick read, perfect for a plane trip, which is where I found myself laughing at some of Severgnini's trials and tribulations. I suspiciously wonder, however, if the text has been watered down for its American audience. I'd like to get a look at the Italian version!
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Summary: Emphasis Missplaced, but true,,,
Review: I believe most persons buying this book to be in the top five percent of readers. Why would I say that? Since this book is thought to be highly predictable and story is conteplated from insight even before opening the book. But now that I have almost ruined the idea of reading it, forget what I said as this book will surprise most as Beppe has opened the real can on America, the one which most foreigners have a very misunderstood conception. I say yes to the rest of the readers, get it, you'll close this fast easy read with a new smile of, Yeah, that is right. Another book that reveals real America and needs attention of most readers is Karl Maddox's SB 1 or God.
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Summary: Fantastic read!
Review: I first heard about the Author and this book on NPR and laughed out loud listening to Beppe relate some of the stories to the Interviewer! I nodded my head in agreement several times and decided that I must have this book. The book by no means makes fun of Americans, but gives an insight into their lives from a foreigners point of view; the way of Americans isn't wrong, just different.
Being a Foreigner in a foreign land myself, I was able to relate to the Author and his observations of America and its inhabitants 100%. It is interesting to me that no matter where the foreigners come from, be it from Italy, Germany or England, they all tell the same story. It is still a country I am glad to be living in and am grateful for it's opportunities it has given me.
There are more of these "types" of books from this Author, observing characteristics of the English and Germans. I hope that Amazon.com has them on offer on the website so that Americans may enjoy a chuckle about the people on the other side of the pond!
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Summary: It's a "Bible" for Italian travellers in the US
Review: I have read the Italian version of this book while spending the summer of 1999 in Washington DC. For me and my other Italian friends who were with me at the time this book was like the "Bible" for Italian travellers in the US. Finally we felt like somebody understood our experience and our feelings, I never read anything that mirrors so closely my own experience there, expect for the fact that I went there as a student at Georgetown.
I advise everyone to read this book, as it it interesting and funny both for Italians, who will recognise themselves into at least some of the situations, and for anybody else, who will be able to have a better insight into the Italian mentality.
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Summary: Funny look at America
Review: I heard the author interviewed on NPR and bought the book to see if it was as funny as he was. I loved the book and have sent copies to friends and relatives. Reading this book as an American, I can't tell you how funny and true it is. I think it is valuable to see yourself through others eyes, and this author sees America with all our faults with loving eyes. This is a laugh out loud book which I think Americans should read. After all we need to laugh at ourselves every once in awhile.
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Summary: Great and funny observations about the U.S. !
Review: I just loved this book. Being myslef a foreigner living in the U.S., it just confirmed my observations. Some things, like the national obsession with putting a pound of ice in every drink, are still a mystery to me. But sometimes when I travel back to Europe, I catch myself doing things the American way...
I would also like to find an equivalent book on living in Italy -- not just in some Tuscan villa, but in a big city. That would be a lot of fun too.
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