The Italians

De: John Hooper

Narrado por: Gareth Armstrong

John Hooper's marvelously entertaining and perceptive new book is ideal for anyone seeking to understand contemporary Italy and the unique character of the Italians.

Looking at the facts that lie behind and often belie the stereotypes, his revealing book sheds new light on many aspects of Italian life: football and Freemasonry, sex, symbolism, and the reason Italian has twelve words for a coat hanger yet none for a hangover

.©2015 John Hooper (P)2015 W F Howes Ltd

A bit slow at first , then nails it

I just moved to Italy and this book explains so much. Entertaining and relevant. Started out slow, but if this is an interest of yours, it’s worth sticking out.

Awesome!

I absolutely loved it! five stars for Hooper and Armstrong. I'm Italian and my family is from Naples.

Historical elements good. Contemporary (2010) elements dated

Author is well intentioned but has a very blinkered globalist Davos view of economic, immigration, and cultural issues

Interesting but not kind

This was definitely interesting and I appreciated the insights in to Italian behavior, which I believe, had some merits. However, you get a sense that the author does not really like Italian people, in fact, it seems he despises them. It's one thing to take a hard look at a culture and examine what drives it but the author seems to only gloss on the many wonderful aspects of Italian cultural and the life of it's people. Instead, he insists time and time again, that Italians are sneaky, unethical, and altogether unsuccessful. As an Italian American, who celebrates his cultural heritage, I often felt a bit insulted at this author's constant attacking narrative towards the Italian people.
The narration was well done but the book itself is a bit dry and the narrative only strengthens that, leading to a bit of a boring listen.

Quirky at times, but a good read

I'm not an Italophile, but am interested in learning about other places, and the audio sample seemed pretty good, so I decided to get this one.

Basically, it's an overview of aspects of Italian culture that have struck the expat author as ... notable: rampant cheating on exams, string resistance to eating foreign foods, wearing sunglasses on cloudy days, the mixed feelings on religion, and so forth; his section on (organized) crime near the end got a bit deep in the weeds for me, but otherwise I found the book interesting.

Honestly, 3.5 stars for content; however, the audio narration was enthusiastic, without being over-the-top, so it gets rounded up for that.

Great information, well told

I really liked how well each chapter was organized and included both personal anecdotes and factual information. The authors perspective really added to the narrative!

Mi piace molto!

This is one of the many books either about Italy or in Italian I've read over the last year, and it was lots of fun. I was hesitant at first because of some of the bad reviews I'd seen on amazon. I had the impression that perhaps Hooper was of the "disdainful Englishman abroad" variety, the ones who sniff, "The problem with Italy is the Italians," which is a viewpoint I've heard too many times. In the end I felt he was fair. After all, this is his view of the Italians, not the last word on the subject.

It's dangerous to generalize, but it's also human nature to do so. That said, I admit Italians both fascinate and bewilder me and I adore them for it. I've loved all the Italians I've known. I love Italian opera, music, art, fashion, and so many other things they've contributed to the world. Crooked politicians and criminal enterprises aside --- and heaven knows these things aren't limited to Italy --- it is an incredibly rich and beautiful country.

But if you don't love the Italians, you might as well leave them be because they're not going to change to suit your point of view, which is more or less the subtext of Hooper's writing. I think this particularly applies to the Roman Church. As Hooper says, Italy made the Catholic Church, not the other way around. That speaks volumes, and as a Catholic, it makes a great deal of sense to me.

Gareth Armstrong is one of my favorite narrators, and he gave his usual top class performance here.

Give it a listen if you have any interest in Italy. It made me want to grab my passport and head back to Lombardia at once....

Great book - helped an American understand Italy

Serves as a Rosetta stone for all those WTF are they thinking moments when you are doing business with Italians.
Countless valuable jewels in this book.

Definitely worth it!*

The author does an excellent job weaving in history to understand present-day Italy. That said, the author’s British perspective shows through in that he tends to use the British economic and political system as a yardstick on what is good when putting Italy in global perspective.

Good information

I am a American with dual citizenship with many trips to Italy over my 60+ years. I'm retired and I'm thinking of living there part time. This book is very informative but a little dry at times. But I have no regrets for listening to It. I would buy again. It's full of very useful history, culture and good information. I feel I know the culture much better. I recommend it for anyone that spend time in Italy.