PISTOLA – THE HOMECOMING
Author: Hilary Prendini Toffoli
Publisher: Self published
Reviewer: Beryl Eichenberger
Pistola the Homecoming by Hilary Prendini Toffoli is like watching a big pot of authentic Italian Ragu simmering on a slowly burning stove. Smelling the delectable aromas wafting across the room and sifting into every corner as your brain is filled with Italian deliciousness. Turning the heat up at times to thicken the sauce, turning it down to ensure no sticking, and finally allowing the ripe and lush taste to burst on your tongue. In short, the book is one to be savoured, every page a delightful journey, splashed with lashings of Italian words, cooking adventures, passion and chatty narrative that takes you right into Pistola’s world.
Toffoli continues her story of the young Pistola from the tiny village of Campino in the Po Valley who, as one of the 110 young Italian men recruited to work on the South African Railways just after World War ll, introduced Italian cuisine to the nation. Think of La Perla or Bella Napoli and you’ve got the idea.
It’s a little-known story and one that was well explored and embedded in Prendini Toffoli’s first book ‘Love and Miracles of Pistola’. A delightful dish of Italian and South African adventures, this sequel stands alone as Prendini Toffoli weaves the previous story skilfully into the narrative.
Pistola has now opened a small restaurant in Cape Town with the love of his life Teresa. But it’s the 1950s, they are not experienced restauranteurs and the South African palate hasn’t quite got there, so it’s a bit of an uphill battle. For Pistola and Teresa the Cape Town life is idyllic except for the absurd apartheid laws which they really can’t get their heads around. Add to that but there’s some boastful Italian colleagues who are opening a restaurant on the beachfront so the competition is fierce.
But things aren’t going well at home in Campino. His Nonno Mario, he of the magnificent Roman profile, tumbling locks, temper and cooking skill, has hit a wall, literally. The restaurant he’s running in Pistola’s inherited Villa Casa Caprini is suffering. The late owner’s belligerent lawyer is about to visit to ensure that terms of the will are not being breached and Pistola needs to get back to Campino fast to sort things (and people) out.
Entertaining, salivating – oh mio dio – a lesson in Italian cooking and the language, you’ll be tossing those words around like a native – and a cast of characters that are as tasty and unpredictable as the story line.
Prendini Toffoli draws on her knowledge of the Italians, Italy, its food and her extensive journalistic skills to create a unique, wildly extravagant but wholly believable fresco in Pistola -The Homecoming. She entices us in to the pages as we meet the larger-than-life Nonno Mario, who brought him up; his paramour, fake blonde Sandrina, with a mouth that sailors might envy. Zia Andromeca, peacemaker, bread maker and all-round carer who can pour oil on troubled waters.
The village is one big family- interfering, interested and one that the reader immediately feels part of. A parade of cousins, Zios and Zias emerge to hinder, help and hope; pithy and humourous, the essence of pathos makes for a satisfying read.
Join the cast at this traditional Italian table: Raise a glass of Chianti, sip on a grappa, pour yourself a good Espresso and enjoy the adventures that bring the South African landscape together with the Italian lushness. Frogs, Fellini, frescoes, and Fossils melt into the pot. And let’s not forget a maledetto Mushroom mission, film sets and a dark skinned beauty who can upset an applecart. The adventures are ebullient, effervescent and bubbling. They pour off the pages like a good wine, succulent slices of life… and did I mention the mouthwatering food?