Word: figura
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...major key to Italian-American culture is something called 'bella figura,'" says Gardaphè. "It basically means, to put on a show so people don't know the real you. If you're poor, you make them think you're rich. If you're rich, you make them think you're poor." For an immigrant people emerging from a history of foreign conquerors and a lack of a nation-state (till 1870), says Gardaphè, "It's all about protection...
...Severgnini, a columnist for Corriere della Sera, is the author of La Bella Figura: A Field Guide to the Italian Mind
...controversy over Pluto's planetary status after all these years [Aug. 28]? To call it a planet, a watermelon or a beach ball changes nothing. It remains the same object it always was. John M. Reynolds Augusta, Georgia, U.S. Severgnini's Italia Beppe Severgnini's new book, Label-La Figura, provides a good way to understand Italy [Aug. 28]. He's the best person to describe the highs and the lows of our country. Most books on the subject drown readers in a sea of awful clichés. Since Severgnini has traveled all over the world, he can draw...
...journalistic career to the national level, but also gave him the material for An Italian in Britain, which became a best seller in the U.K. in 1991 and established him as a writer with global appeal. Severgnini, a fan of contradiction, prefers the term "provincial international." In La Bella Figura, Severgnini's third book to be exported from the Italian peninsula, his propensity for contradiction has found ample room. "Italy," he writes, "is the only workshop in the world that could turn out both Botticellis and Berlusconis." And one into which outsiders enter at their peril. "Your Italy...
...still based, he pauses in his tour to point out the different shades of the cathedral's stonework: "It has taken seven centuries to produce this imperfection, which echoes the equally fascinating imperfection in our heads." But it's not merely a more optimistic spin that sets La Bella Figura apart. Rather, it's how intimately Severgnini discusses his countrymen - he makes you feel as if he's introducing you to old friends. Even though La Bella Figura poses as an introduction to the Italian mind, it's as much an introduction to the author, proving that he's just...