The Italians Author:Luigi Barzini The New Yorker Searching into every corner of Italian life and scrutinizing every clich? concerning it, from the charm of the people (an illusion, he maintains) to the consolations of la dolce vita (another one), Mr. Barzini has written an invaluable and astringent guidebook to his country.
Great writer (he's a journalist who lived in the US), he knows how to turn a phrase. Full of sweeping generalizations about the Italians. He also wrote "The Europeans."