Review of Bon Ton updated in the company of Lina Sotis

“Don’t call me dear!” she says Lina Sotis. It’s one of the first things to know, even though she says no one teaches “things to know.” On the other hand, “today everyone says ‘dear’, it’s the most unpleasant thing one can hear. It’s best to call each other by name. ‘Listen, Lina’ has something friendly about it. ‘Listen, dear’, it has something of the poultry who wishes he had arrived and the novice saleswoman”. The pleasure of meeting and visiting Lina Sotis, of listening to her speak with the vivacity of such a Milan. In his New Bon Ton (Baldini+Castoldi, out these days), the “second lady of the Corriere” (Giulia Maria Crespi, unquestionably the first, whom Lina defines as the “Czarina of Milan”), written with Charles Mazzoni (director of Lampoon), writes it clearly. Forty years after the release of the first Bon Ton, returns to those themes that have always fascinated her and which can be translated into that grace with which the color of time is interpreted. “Occasionally a casual conversation with a friend or a friend can be pleasant, that she tells us, perhaps without realizing it, that little thing that we were missing until then”. And, above all, “times have changed so much and what used to be a form of etiquette is now an essay, a bit political, and a breviary has come out of etiquette”. From the A of Hugs to the V of Life it is a succession of an alphabet that explains and recounts ways of speaking, attitudes, attitudes to keep, words, silences, smiles that tell us the best way to others.