Café Tempest: Adventures On a Small Greek Island Review

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(More customer reviews)Fictional memoir plays with amour and theater on mythic isle
Sojourns in the Mediterranean have inspired some gems of travel literature. Robert Louis Stevenson's 1879 classic, "Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes," and Gerald Durrell's enduringly popular accounts of his idyllic boyhood on Corfu are prime examples.
Since mass tourism has burgeoned, spurred on in part by such books, the genre has expanded accordingly, though quality has sometimes suffered. Entire bookstore departments overflow with almost indistinguishable volumes in the vein of "my week/month/year in Provence/Tuscany/the Algarve." The sameness and blandness are occasionally punctured by out-of-the box triumphs like James Hamilton-Paterson's wickedly funny trilogy featuring the acid-tongued Gerry Samper, celebrity ghostwriter and culinary saboteur.
A writer hoping to make an impact in the increasingly crowded field needs to offer something original. Barbara Bonfigli's fictional memoir, "Cafe Tempest: Adventures on a Small Greek Island," published by Tell Me Press, offers
snappy dialogue, a satisfying narrative arc and lots of humor.
When Sarah, an American-born, London-based theatrical producer, is invited to direct a cast of Greeks on the fictional island of Pharos in an amateur production of Shakespeare's "Tempest," the stage is set for a light-hearted comedy of manners.
Bonfigli is not the first to use a theater production as a plot device but she is probably the first to set one in a deconsecrated church on a Greek island. As local rivalries intensify the jockeying for parts in the play and feasts disrupt rehearsals - the delicacies supplied by aspiring actresses - Sarah learns to relax and enjoy the food while making strategic compromises. She deftly avoids confrontations with those who wield real power - not just the police chief and the mayor but also the woman who issues tickets to the sole ferry serving the Pharos route. A seeker of serenity, Sarah embraces the surreal elements of her adopted island. As she says: "The whole country's got a poetic license. That's why I love it."
A local woman takes to her husband with a frying pan in punishment for an infidelity she had ignored until she became lonely when her dog died, while the outsiders experiment with looser, less conventional ties that prove to be just as emotionally complex. Along the way there are idyllic boat trips to deserted beaches, delicious meals washed down with retsina that could double as paint stripper, amusing dalliances and the serial disappearances of a Volvo.
Evocative little illustrations by Gaia Franchetti, recipes of foods mentioned
in the book and remastered by Ana Espinosa and instructions for the Cafe Tempestini cocktail, a challenging combination of retsina, Samos wine, cranberry juice and triple sec, add the finishing touches to an enjoyable romp.
Review by VIVIENNE NILAN from Athens Plus October 9,2009


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Café Tempest: Adventures on a Small Greek Island
A fictional memoir that does for Greece what A Year in Provence did for France.
What is it about Greece that makes it so exotic, so romantic, so tantalizing that it s right at the top of everybody s bucket list the one foreign land they're longing to visit? Our dreams are made by Never on Sunday, Zorba the Greek, and just lately My Big Fat Greek Wedding and Mama Mia.
Café Tempest: Adventures on a Small Greek Island is a witty, evocative, beautifully written novel that puts you right in the heart of Greek island life. It's so alive with the sights and smells and tastes and characters of Greece that you can pick it up and start your Mediterranean vacation on page one. On a deeper level, the book is filled with the kinds of observations, reflections, and arc of self-discovery that make Eat, Pray, Love so compelling.
Welcome to Pharos. Laugh and dance in the hammock not the cradle of Western civilization, says author, lyricist, and theatrical producer Barbara Bonfigli. I ve been falling in love with Greece since I was old enough to drink retsina. But if Sarah hadn't captured my imagination you'd never know how I feel about friendship, feta, and the abundance of grace that turns friends into lovers and fishermen into kings.
Synopsis: When Sarah, a thirty-something American theatrical producer, is asked to direct the locals in their summer show, she picks Shakespeare's play The Tempest. What follows is a hilarious adventure in casting, rehearsing, and consuming. Her neighbors are excited about acting but delirious about eating. Their rehearsals in a deconsecrated church become a feast in four acts.
Armed with a sizzling wit, a dangerously limited Greek vocabulary, and a pitch-perfect ear for drama, Sarah navigates the major egos and minor storms of a cab driver Caliban, a postmaster Prospero, and a host of fishermen dukes and knaves.
When she falls in love, there are even trickier seas to navigate. Her own offstage romance provides an exhilarating, unpredictable counterpoint to Shakespeare's story of magic, intrigue, and the power of love.

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