The Italians

By: John Hooper

Narrated by: 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

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

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.

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!