Amarcord: Marcella Remembers

By Marcella Hazan Copyright 2008

According to the jacket of this book, the word "Amarcord" means "I remember" in the Italian dialect of the author. Since this book is an autobiography, Amarcord is an appropriate word for the title. The author, Marcella Hazan, is also a cookbook author. She is apparently famous in some circles of society, although most people probably won't recognize her name. She authored several cookbooks about classic Italian cooking and also ran a cooking school in Italy which was attended by wealthy people, including a few celebrities. But Marcella is more than just a cook. She is also a woman who has led a very interesting and busy life.

Marcella Hazan's nationality is Italian, but she was born in Egypt in 1924 and lived there until the age of 12. Her family returned to Italy after Marcella broke her arm and needed better medical attention than was available in Egypt. Her parents weren't wealthy, but they were apparently prosperous. Her father was a tailor and owned property in Italy. The broken arm Marcella suffered never fully healed and to this day she doesn't have full use of her arm and hand.

When World War II started, her family moved to the country to avoid the dangers of the war. But unfortunately they moved to an area with military activity, so they were frequently bombed. During this period, Marcella attended school and studied biology and zoology. After the war, when she and her parents returned to their hometown, she continued to attend school and eventually obtained a Doctorate in biology. She then worked as a school teacher and lived with her family until she was 30.

She then met her husband, Victor, who was an American visiting Italy and studying art. Victor had been born in Italy, but moved to the US as a boy. His parents were wealthy and owned a fur store. Victor was Jewish, and Marcella was Catholic, and they married in a civil ceremony so as not to antagonize his parents. But his parents never did approve of Marcella, and they even temporarily disowned Victor.

Soon after their marriage they moved to New York, and Victor worked in his parent's business. This was in the late 1950's. Marcella eventually got a job and leaned English. She then got pregnant, and quit her job. At about the same time, Victor was in a car accident. These events seemed to inspire the couple to return to Italy.

So for most of the 1960's they lived in Italy, with their young son (and only child), and Victor got a job in advertising. But he wasn't successful, and he decided to return to New York and work in the family business again.

It was during this time, in the early 1970's that Marcella took a cooking class. She then began giving her own cooking classes on Italian cooking. This led to a New York Times reporter interviewing her. Which then led to a book publisher asking her to write a cook book. The book was successful, and it also created more demand for her cooking classes.

In the late 1970's, her husband apparently wound-up the family business and Marcella and him opened a cooking school in Italy. So they spent most of the 1980's living in Italy and even bought a house in Venice and remodeled it. They also published several more cook books.  And they got married again, in a Catholic church this time, since Victor's parents were dead. 

By the 1990's they retired and decided to return to the US and live in a house they owned in Longboat Key, Florida. One of the reasons they wanted to live in the US, is because they were concerned about the lack of quality of Italy's nationalized health care system. But another reason was the weather was better in Florida.

This is a good book. It is also a very honest autobiography. Marcella is very matter-of-fact about the failures and disappointments in her life, and also about the conflicts and disagreements she had with various people. But she never "over shares" by giving too much personal information, which many autobiographies tend to do. She has a good sense of personal boundaries and fairness and gives just the right amount of information. She seems very self-aware and has a pleasant sense of humor. She has travelled many places and done lots of interesting things. Her long and interesting life has given her wisdom, and the expression "a life well lived" would seem to apply in this case.

This book is very enjoyable reading.

The Midnight Show Murders

By Al Roker and Dick Lochte

This book is a murder mystery story featuring a reformed conman/convict, named Billy Blessing, who is now a chef and restaurant owner. Billy also makes appearances on a network TV morning show, as a guest chef and presenter. He has been sent by the network to serve as the sidekick on a new late night TV talk show. When the host of the show is killed by a bomb during a live broadcast, Billy gets caught up in the murder investigation.

When the killer's motive is finally revealed at the end of the book, it makes the whole story rather convoluted and bizarre. Because the motive didn't really have much to do with the rest of the story or characters. It turned out the host, who was Irish, was supposedly a former member of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), and he had been involved years ago in a bombing that killed the daughter of one of the other characters. So the Irish host was killed by the girl's father as revenge. All the other convoluted scenes and action leading to the revelation of the IRA connection turns out to have been meaningless attempts at intrigue. And in spite of what may seem a rather serious plot element, this book is ultimately intended to be a comedy. Unfortunately for readers, it isn't funny or enjoyable.

There are so many problems with this story it's hard to know where to begin. First, the story is written as a first person narrative by the main character, Billy Blessing. This is a problem because first person accounts are not well suited for fictional stories, although this fact seems lost to the publishing world.

Second, there are too many characters. When the story begins, Billy tells about events that occurred twenty years earlier and introduces four primary characters, one of whom had been murdered. Then Billy starts narrating about the present, and an additional four or five main characters are introduced. And then in addition to all these main characters, there are about 10 other secondary characters who keep popping up.

The characters represent every Hollywood stereotype possible. There is a pushy real estate agent, the aggressive TV executive, the timid secretary, the phony agent, the beautiful TV reporter, the temperamental chef, the Jewish guy, the catholic guy, and the list goes on and on. And the background stories of the main characters are so complicated they are difficult to follow.  In addition, they are mostly outlandish and silly. And there is a multi-ethnic agenda in the casting of the characters. Every race, ethnicity, gender, and religion is politically correctly represented. One may think it would make the story rather cosmopolitan, but in fact the characters are all extremely provincial. The only readers who relate to them will be liberals with an interest in celebrities and the television industry.

The story is saturated with references to pop culture and celebrities. This book will not age well. Readers in ten or twenty years will have no idea about many of the celebrities and events the author mentions. There are pop singers and TV shows mentioned that won't even be remembered in two or three years.

It is a fast moving story, but unfortunately it moves fast from one unengaging scene to another. And there is a constant stream of misplaced profanity. And the profane words are not the only problem. There are just too many words. Period.

The authorship of this book is partially attributed to the NBC Today shows weatherman Al Roker. The co-author is Dick Lochte. To judge by their writing, they are rather shallow and vulgar people and only wrote the book in an attempt to sell it as an idea for a TV series. There is action, romance, mystery, and comedy. But most of all, there is just dumbness.

It is certainly a waste of time to read this book, but worse than that, readers are likely to feel worse about the world and their fellow men after reading the story. It would be better if books like this never got produced, because it would avoid the danger of anyone getting dumbed down and feeling bad after being exposed to it. So this book is suitable for burning.