Recipe for Life

by Nicky Pellegrino

[Leah]

Nicky Pellegrino is yet another new author to me. I’d not heard of her books until I received a copy of Recipe For Life for review, but even then, I wasn’t necessarily sure she was my cup of tea. The cover doesn’t scream Chick Lit – the green house with the dark blue front door – but the new paperback cover is tons better. I’ve been looking for something a bit different to read so when I noticed this was still on my shelf, I decided to give it a go. At the end of the day, I’d either discover a brand new author or I just simply wouldn’t like it. And with so many novels being so similar recently, it looked like the kind of novel that was a bit different to the norm.

Recipe For Life is a novel that spans about twenty years, give or take a few years. I didn’t know that prior to reading it, but I liked the novel’s scope. The novel is about two women: Alice, a University drop-out after enduring a horrific tragedy, turned cook and Babetta, an aging lady who looks after Villa Rosa with her husband and who lives next door. The novel alternates between the two women – Alice in first-person, Babetta in third-person and the two women come together to meet at Villa Rosa after Alice’s best friend Leila’s mother buys the villa. The book stays with both women through the years as they go through hardships, as they grow older, as relationships and things change. I did at the start worry I would bore quickly of Babetta’s narrative as not much of note happened in her life, but I found it fascinating reading about this little old lady who spends her life looking after the garden next door.

A chunk of the novel is set in Italy, with the majority of the book focusing heavily on food and, more specifically, Italian food. I dare you to read this novel and not become hungry for some delicious Italian pasta. From what I can tell, most of Nicky’s novels are set in Italy (or part-set) and it’s clear Italy is a big place for Nicky. The way she writes about it is wonderful. Triento is a fictional town but is based on a real Italian town and it made me want to take the next flight out of Tenerife bound for Italy to hunt down the town with a big statue of Christ in the middle. It also made me wish I was a better cook so I could try out some of the delicious dishes talked about in the novel. I have serious food and cook envy of Alice and Babetta. The descriptions of the food and of Italy were magnificent, never has there been a novel with such illustrious descriptions.

I did find it difficult to connect to the characters. Despite the fact Alice is merely in her twenties when we first meet her, she always seems older. She has an aura around her of someone much older, undoubtedly foisted upon her after the trauma she went through. And despite her narratives always being in first-person, it was hard to really pin her down as a person, which was strange. The same goes for Babetta, as she’s more like a grandmother, obviously. I felt that rather than the characters carrying the novel, I felt the plot carried the novel more. It was more about what these characters overcame than them themselves, if that makes any sense. I did find the fringe characters fascinating though. I really liked Leila, Alice’s best friend and Guyon, a rather flamboyant and addicted chef.

The description that comes to mind when summing up Recipe For Life is lovely. It was a lovely read. It didn’t necessarily blow me away, or make me go ‘Wow’, but it was a lovely, slow read. Something to while away and afternoon in the garden as you get lost in the lives of Alice and Babetta. It was very richly written and the descriptions are to die for. Honestly, people who love Italy – and Italian cooking – will absolutely die over this book. Nicky Pellegrino really knows her stuff, and I’d absolutely read another novel of hers. In fact, I’m looking forward to picking up her newest novel The Villa Girls at some point, another novel set in Italy. Recipe For Life was a lovely way to spend a day, to immerse myself in Alice and Babetta’s worlds and although it’s not fast-paced and although it’s not filled with action and break-ups and all the usual Chick Lit cliches, it is still a lovely read.