Road Reads

"La Bella Figura: A Field Guide to the Italian Mind," by Beppe Severgnini

BOOK: "La Bella Figura: A Field Guide to the Italian Mind," by Beppe Severgnini (Broadway Books, $23.95)

TARGET AUDIENCE: Unclear (and that's part of the problem).

Severgnini, who lived in Georgetown for a year and wrote the bestseller "Ciao, America" about his experience, now returns to Italy, a land where fare una bella figura (to cut a fine figure) is a continuing preoccupation. But oddly, there is little analysis here of fashion, appearances or image maintenance. (Indeed, the term "La Bella Figura" was not part of the book's title in its original Italian publication.)

What is here is often clever but unsupported, randomly directed comic despair of a type Jerry Seinfeld and even Andy Rooney have been doing for years. (Does Severgnini really think he's the first to notice people conversing loudly on cellphones?) And perhaps it's a reflection of our shrinking world, but many of the observed Italian foibles -- shopping as entertainment, the acquisition of unneeded possessions -- are equally applicable to America. But the book isn't really a reference tool "field guide"; it's just Beppe riffing.

-- Jerry V. Haines