Does Popularity Of "Auntie Mame" Explain McItaly Burger?

“Being funny is not a compliment in Italy. Humor is seen as having little to do with life or death or astrophysics.”
-Matteo Codignola, editor and translator, discusses the inexplicable popularity of Patrick Dennis’s 55-year-old novel Auntie Mame, which has sold 280,000 copies since Codignola’s new translation was published last May.