The Cookbook Collector: A Novel (edition 2010)

Allegra Goodman strikes me as that rare bird, an author who exudes happiness. Her characters even in the face of tragedy own up to their responsibilities and carry on. There is humor, and complexity too. As I began reading about the two sisters who carry the story, I felt my mouth turn up into a smile. Goodman's happiness as an author makes me happy. ( )

This book expanded into some unexpected directions; it starts with the two sisters, Emily and Jess, but follows other people in their lives as well. The timeline is interesting too; there are several distinct sections, each a few months apart. The fact that it is set for the most part in California and Cambridge, and occasionally zeroes in on aspects of cooking and the rare book world, also helped to draw me in. Overall, just a wonderful book; reminded me a little of Julia Glass' The Whole World Over.

George: He had established bulwarks of skepticism against disappointment. And yet he hungered for the beautiful, and the authentic - those volumes and experiences impossible to duplicate. How sad, he thought, that desire found new objects but did not abate, that when it came to longing there was no end. (27)

Emily: Even as they kissed, she missed the kiss before, and the one before that. How strange the way every moment contained and at the same time hollowed out the last. (111)

Emily: Numbers didn't matter here. Money didn't count, and all the words and glances, the quick exchanges that built or tore down reputations had no meaning in this place. (204)

Jess: "But who you were fits inside who you are. Can't you see that?" (357) ( )

This was so not the kind of book I usually read!

I guess I usually read books about things like time-traveling dolphins or Nigerian wizards or Chinese hackers or gentlemen thieves or what have you, so it actually seemed weirdly exotic to read a book about some boring middle-class Californians like myself.

It was also kind of weird to not really have a plot, or at least not one where anything surprising happened (e.g. aliens or Russian mafia appearing out of nowhere!). Like, if you have your first chapter heading be "Fall 1999", it seems pretty obvious when the big climax of the story is going to happen. And these people are going to make some money and then lose it, and these other people are going to fall in love, and everyone is going to maybe grow a little.
Still, it was a lot more pageturny than I expected.

And after reading a bunch of classic SF, I REALLY appreciated having some character development, but I kind of hated the way she was subtly sneering at everyone the whole time. I mean, you invented these people, lady. No need to be so condescending.
If it wasn't for that, I would have given it 4 stars. ( )

I had something of a love/hate relationship with this novel, but the writing, the language, is superb. Lyrical. It captures much of the discontent and discomfort of that time, as well as the strange realization, as youth merges with adulthood, that life will never, ever be quite what we'd expected. The quote seems to be the main theme around which the book revolves:

Quote: "How sad, he thought, that desire found new objects but did not abate, that when it came to longing there was no end." ( )

Yaaaaawwwwnnnnnnnn. ( )