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Loading... Gourmet Rhapsody (original 2000; edition 2009)by Muriel Barbery (Author), Alison Anderson (Translator)
Work InformationThe Gourmet by Muriel Barbery (2000)
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. I love reading about food, and I loved The Elegance of the Hedgehog by the same author, but I didn't love this book. It wasn't bad, I liked what it was trying to do, but I didn't especially enjoy the reading of it. I should say why, but I'm not sure how to explain it. Suffice it to say I found it overblown for my taste. ( ) Although translated one year after The Elegance of the Hedgehog, this is actually Muriel's first book and was published in French 6 years before. And that's why i read it first. I'm in two frames of mind about this book, my first one is that it's an incredibly well written descriptive narrative that i thoroughly enjoyed, especially being a life long foody myself, to the point i found myself happily picking it up at every spare minute to read some more. However, my other frame of mind comes from my utter contempt for people who look at food as a medium for art when the best part of i billion people don't get enough calories every day while many many more get absolutely no choice what to eat and very rarely have access to a full range of essential nutrients. At the same time, over 1 billion other people in the privileged developed world gorge themselves on highly processed foods to an obesity epidemic (creating an obscene amount of waste while doing so). A system of food preparation, presentation, advertising and marketing that caters for nothing but a ridiculous conception of what good food is. This system being pushed wholesale through advertising and television cookery programs: Master Chef being a prime example. Good food is as it comes from the ground with the most minimal processing, just enough processing to maximise the digestion of the nutrients, and each meal should aim to be completely nutritionally balanced. Instead we have these so called master chefs, critics and their sycophants parading food on television that bears no resemblance to reality, is nutritionally corrupt in the extreme and does nothing but titillate people's mouths and give them a spike of neurotransmitters that they fallaciously perceive as delicious while fuelling a pandemic of obesity and chronic diseases, causing years of suffering before sending them all to an early grave. So yeah, i loved the writing and enjoyed reading it, but i really hated the main protagonist's attitude to food, life and everything: the only thing he didn't treat with utter contempt was his own gluttony and i was quite pleased when he died without the choux pastry he wanted so much. Anyways, i'm certainly looking forward to reading The Elegance of the Hedgehog. Although not as good as ELEGANCE OF THE HEDGEHOG, Barbery (and her translator Anderson) still weaves a very well-written story in this prequel of sorts. Barbery also shows that she can successfully jump from one voice to another rather convincingly, even in a book as jumbled as this. I would recommend for anyone who loves ELEGACE as much as I and/or enjoys reading about food. Otherwise, you probably won't enjoy it.
At her florid best, Barbery captures the arousal inflamed by good food (and good food writing) almost as well as Julia Child, who inspired countless readers with her recipes and epiphanic mouthful of sole meunière. While reading can’t replace the joy of biting into a juicy tomato, Barbery cooks up a decent substitute.
A great food critic who can make or destroy the reputation of a chef with a stroke of his pen, Pierre Arthens faces his imminent death by trying to recall the one perfect flavor he sampled in his youth, a flavor that he believes forms the ultimate truth of his life. No library descriptions found. |
LibraryThing Early Reviewers AlumMuriel Barbery's book Gourmet Rhapsody [Unabridged Audio Edition] was available from LibraryThing Early Reviewers. Current DiscussionsNonePopular covers
Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)843.92Literature French and related languages French fiction Modern Period 21st CenturyLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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