Brendan Connell

Wickedly funny and just plain wicked. Connell is a master of language and with his encyclopedic mind every phrase is both a delight and a challenge. If you can keep up the reward is there and the book actually becomes somewhat of a page turner that you have to slow yourself down in order to savor.

It is rare that you feel like an entertainment that is so enjoyable is also elevating as well.

This may not be a book for everyone but I would enthusiastically recommend it to the more adventurous readers out there. It's at times exciting and disturbing. It's strange. It pulses. Brendan Connell jumps from city to city shining a bright light in the dark corners of human obsession. Connell playfully shifts between prose and poetry with ease. Thirty-six cities in all. Here's a taste of New York:

"A maggot heap millions strong a beast of glass and steel black pollutants puss. Taxis buzz show more bees on asphalt steaming miasma eyes mask not just for faces a city that wakes up early goes to bed late at night a great bed of burning coals."

Each city is a story. Each story is notably short. If you let it, [b:Metrophilias|7997919|Metrophilias|Brendan Connell|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1270771261s/7997919.jpg|12507565] will slip by much too fast. show less

First off, this book is downright hilarious at times. At others it can actually be surprisingly touching. It is almost always, sadly, representative of the ability of corporations and the media to manipulate almost all of us. If I wasn’t so certain of what Connell is doing here I would say he was trolling for product placement kickbacks. But we know that can’t be, don’t we?

The introduction by Isis is Priceless. The Divinity Student collaboration I’ve read elsewhere in the Mark show more Samuel’s tribute volume still didn’t get me but everything else is top notch. The first story and the bicycle cop story will leave you in stitches.

It’s signed, blah, blah show less

The book is mosaic in nature, telling the unconnected stories of several notorious cooks. It has a large geographic reach, spanning from England to China and all points in between. In addition, it covers a great chunk of time. The stories include both mundane and fantastic elements. Therefor, this book could have been written for me.

The idea is a good one. Many of the stories are simultaneously; funny,touching and eccentric. However, after several of them, they begin to merge and the show more reader’s attention begins to wander.

This would be a good bedside/handbag book. You could read a random story when time allows. However, I wouldn’t recommend reading them one after the other. Take time to savor, and digest, each meal before moving on to the next. This would make a good Christmas present for a foodie. show less