I was all set to write a review of this book, when Christian Bauman emailed me a link to an essay of his on the very same book. It’s a very funny read on food obsession, something I know a little about. And that same day Dan Wickett emailed to let me know he has a very recent interview with Ruhlman. Well then, I thought, I will let them tell you about this book.
But I can’t not say anything about my impressions of this book. Soul of a Chef is full of passion. Ruhlman doesn’t just research cooking in order to write this book. Cooking is an obsession of his, and this book is a product of his obsession. The first section follows several chefs as they take the Certified Master Chef exam, a brutal weeklong cooking marathon that measures the skill levels of professional chefs. The second part follows Michael Syman, a rising star in the kitchen. And the third follows renowned chef Thomas Keller, who runs the super successful French Laundry in California (where I am dying to go). The first and third parts are the best and Ruhlman has a habit of repeating himself. But its a fun read, especially if you are into food.

I’ve been plowing through books lately, too fast to add them all to the ‘Books I am Reading’ column. Maybe it’s the springtime weather. Here’s what I’ve been reading.
I finished My Cold War by Tom Piazza last week, and found it wonderful. It’s the story of John Delano, a history professor at a small New England school. He teaches what others call “history mcnuggets”, gimmicky glimpses of the surface of history. That’s what his whole life has been, though, surface only. A part of him shut down and never woke up. At one point of the book, he sets off to see his estranged brother, with whom he hasn’t spoken in 8 years. Delano spends the drive to see him narrating it as he goes along, as if he were observing, rather than experiencing. Piazza has a wonderful eye for the nuances of people. He can penetrate to the heart of a person with a few simple words. This was a great book and I can’t wait to read what Piazza writes next.

Then I picked up a book that has been sitting on my shelf at work for some time, Hosack’s Folly: A Novel of Old New York by Gillen D’Arcy Wood. I always enjoy a good historical novel, so I was ready to immerse myself in some Old New York. Set in the 1820s in Manhattan, Wood follows a cast of characters that include: Dr. David Hosack, the doctor who attended Alexander Hamilton during the fatal duel with Aaron Burr, runs Columbia Medical School and Bellevue Hospital; Arthur Dash, young assistant to Hosack; his fiancée Vera Laidlaw and her father, an extremely wealthy man; Virginia Casey, a young woman wishing she could breakout of her staid life; and her father, Eamonn Casey, an Irish man whose risen from poverty to run the Herald newspaper. About to launch himself into politics, he has teamed up with an architect with a scheme to build an aqueduct. Fresh water will improve the lives of everyone, and then get him more votes. The plot unfolds as a ship laden with yellow fever makes it into the docks and politics rather than common sense influences the reaction. With this cast of characters and history, the book had much potential, but Wood wastes them with a more generic plot. Albert Dash, the young handsome doctor and botanist, and Virginia, the young woman secretly in love with Dash, have several scenes out of a bad tv movie.

“I have heard of absinthe as a drink, taken for pleasure,” she said, daring to interrupt him.
Albert frowned at her. “For pleasure? I think no. The wormwood is a bitter flower.”
Yes, you have brought me a bitter flower, she thought.

There’s too much cliché throughout the book. Plus it ends rather predictably, even though Wood makes the effort for a surprise ending.

After my disappointment with Hosack’s Folly, Mark Spragg’s An Unfinished Life seemed the perfect antidote. An uncomplicated tale, 70 year old Einar Gilkyson lives on a ranch with his aging best friend Mitch, an invalid mauled by a bear. He reluctantly takes in his daughter-in-law and the granddaughter he never knew he had when they show up unannounced one day. Jean and her daughter Griff fleeing Jean’s abusive boyfriend arrive in Wyoming when they have no place else to turn. Jean had fallen asleep at the wheel, rolling it, killing Einar’s son Griff, an event she has never forgiven herself for. Whereas I enjoyed the pace and simple prose, the book ultimately feels just a bit too thin, though its still a beautiful book. The character’s flaws to be overcome, and even Einar’s gruffness with the heart of gold underneath feel too neat in places. But Griff is the best part of this book. Spragg outdoes himself, writing affecting scenes as Griff tries to win over her grandfather. The plain, clear writing evoke the landscape of Wyoming, leaving the reader with the impression of land as its own character in this novel.

Lisa See’s new novel Snow Flower and the Secret Fan contains elements that should make a good story. Set in 19th century China, we are given a glimpse into the realm of women, their traditions and culture as they live in a repressive society. To the modern womman, some of it is hard to read. Women in 19th century China, like many places in that age and even today, endured a great deal of subjugation by men. See chooses to focus on the bonds between women. She crafts her novel around a forgotten secret code developed by Chinese women, called nu shu. They used it to communicate with the laotung or ‘old sames’, the women they were sometimes paired with at a young age. These relationships lasted lifetimes and Lily’s story is about her bond with her laotung, Snow Flower.

Lily lives in a remote Hunan county, part of a farming family. Early on, Lily is told she is special by a matchmaker, Madame Wong. Her ‘golden lilies’, or her bound feet, will be special enough to secure a match that will bring her standing up in the world. Bound feet make a position in society. Lily’s mother’s feet were wrpped badly, so that she needs a cane to walk, thus diminishing her value. The smaller the foot, the better. Upstairs in the women’s quarters at the age of 7, Lily, her cousin Beautiful Moon, and Third Sister all have their feet bound at the same time. See makes clear the role of women in the household. They were used for making matches and doing the housework. As the second daughter, Lily is not very important, but her special feet bring her standing up. Lily’s laotung pairing comes when she is 8. The matchmaker comes with the potentail match, which is discussed much like a marriage. She also brings Lily a beautiful fan, with nu shu written on each fold. This fan will keep appearing as the landmarks in Snow Flower and Lily’s lives are added to each fold. The rest of the book follows Lily and Snow Flower through their marriages, childbirth, and so on.

The story is a strong one, and unfortunately See does not seem able to carry the weight. The rich historical details are given to the reader rather than letting them unfold by themselves. This ruined much of the book for me. The intricacies of Chinese society, which can seem foreign to the West, are explained each time they pop up. I’d rather that they were shown to me. And See can’t resist obvious foreshadowing and playing to modern sensibilities. During a very difficult period, when Lily is visiting Snow Flower’s family and they are forced to flee to the mountains to escape the Taiping revolt. Snow Flower’s husband has the lowest position in society—he’s a butcher and one with an angry temperament. After their second son dies, he beats Snow Flower so badly, she miscarries. “Her body bruised and torn from the daily punishment her husband rained down on her. Why didn’t I stop him? I was Lady Lu. I had made him do what I wanted before. Why not this time? Because I was Lady Lu. I could not do more. He was a physically strong man, who did not shy away from using that strength. I was a woman, who, despite my social standing, was alone. I was powerless. He was well aware of that fact, as was I.” Why include this part at all? I could infer this myself. It’s the added explanation, just in case the reader doesn’t get it, that irked me about this book. Maybe some like it, but I’d rather figure things out myself.

I really wanted to like this book. I love historical novels. In a good one, I can imagine myself living the life that is being described to me. The story here, while rich with details, was too thin for me to imagine clearly. The flaws distracted me from the story too much.

One flaw in the mostly flawless Divided Kingdom came at the very end. I felt like Rupert Thomson left me hanging with my palm in the air trying to get the high five. This hypnotizing, creepily dystopian novel captures your attention from the first chapter. Taking the tradition of what-might-happen-novels a step in what seems at first like a silly direction, Thomson imagines the UK divided into 4 quarters, each corresponding to one of the medieval humors—the Red Quarter for the sanguine, Blue Quarter for the phlegmatic, Yellow Quarter for the violent cholerics, and Green Quarter for the melancholics. It sounds far-fetched at first, but gets terrifyingly more realistic as the novel speeds forward.
Thomson’s writing is rich and vivid in detail. I would say that his descriptions help heighten the creepy sense you get when you read this book. In the beginning we meet Matthew Micklewright as he is torn from his family, who are classified as melancholics, during the “Rearrangement”. He is brought to a boarding school where is he is taught the rationale behind the changes. Matthew is told he is one of the sanguines, considered the best of the humours and given a new name, Thomas Parry. Eventually they send him to his new family in the Red Quarter, where he is groomed for a high ranking position later on in the book. The part of the book dealing with his childhood after the “Rearrangement” gives the novel its 1984 feel. Thomas is told before being sent to his new family that “if you should see any behaviour which doesn’t fit in with your notion of the sanguine disposition, it’s your duty—your duty—to report is to the authorities.” And after a year in his new household, the authorities summon Thomas to an office to answer questions about his new family’s behavior. It helps give a paranoid air to the book.
Eventually Thomas is given a high powered job in the government which is carefully concealed to the public, in which he helps transfer people to the other quarters. This is where the momentum picks up. In a surprise move, Thomas is sent to a conference in the Blue Quarter. There he visits a mysterious club called “The Bathysphere” whose interior sounds like something out of the movie ‘Strange Days‘. Memories of his previous life and happier times are awakened. He uses the confusion caused by a terrorist’s bomb while in the Yellow Quarter to make his escape. The rest of the book follows his adventures as he passes through various places—some are down right creepy, too. Throughout this part, you wonder what the finishing point will be as after a while, Thomas seems to move with urgency but without purpose.
I am still not sure if I can decipher Thomson’s message. Usually when I put down a book I just finished I run over to the shelves to pick a new read (yes, I run). With Divided Kingdom I sat there for a while thinking about all the possible messages in the book. Thinking about how similar and dissimilar DK‘s world is from ours. Thinking how its not so farfetched for a group of well-minded people change a society for the “better” with disastrous results. This book definitely made me stop and think, which is what a good book should do in my opinion. If I used a rating system, I would give it 5 stars.

Since I’ve been so busy with the move, I haven’t had a chance to update the Current Reads section to the left. I finished Francine Prose’s Blue Angel last week and was too angry to write anything about it. I hated it. But it still might be a good book, if that makes any sense. I found it so well-written that I found it too maddening and I had to skim parts. The characters were all awful human beings and the ending made me want to toss the book out the window. Did anyone else have this reaction? I know Prose is a great writer. I have a galley of her new book and am wondering if I should try it. Is it her writing or her story that I disliked so much?
Next I grabbed a copy of Blue Clay People: Seasons on Africa’s Fragile Edge by William Powers. Powers’ memoir about his time spent in Liberia as an aid worker beginning in 1999 unveils the corruption and violence scarring the country. Typical to the aid worker memoir, he starts out naive, wide-eyed and full of ideas about fighting poverty and saving the environment. And of course, reality sets in at some point. His outrage comes throughout the memoir and I found that tiresome. I enjoyed the passages where he immersed himself into the Liberian society, learning the lingo, enjoying what’s left of the rainforest, etc. In the end, when he leaves for a new assignment, you know that it was probably best for him. His earnestness and naivety were only leading him down a dark spiral. I wish he had spent more time discussing the plight of the Liberians than listing his constant shock, but the book was still a good read.

For once I actually agree with a Kakutani review. Her comments on Isiguro’s new novel mirror my own, she’s just able to articulate them. Many have seemed to object to the ‘sci-fi’ aspect of the book, but I barely thought of it as traditional sci-fi. And other’s complain about the big ‘reveal’, but I thought he kept parcelling the clues throughout the book. You know from the first chapter something isn’t normal. It’s really a lovely, wonderful book.

I received some books from Soft Skull Press a few weeks ago and was intrigued by one title in particular—White Like Me by Tim Wise. Wise, a prominent white anti-racist, helped in the fight against David Duke years ago and now speaks across the country discussing the meaning of whiteness. This book is part memoir part essay on how racism is so entrenched in our American society and how we should fight it. It is not the usual white guy realizing the privileges the color of his skin has given him. Rather he takes a hard look at his own life and shows how racism is inherent in our school systems, judicial systems, collegiate systems, etc. I liked his message—it’s not easy to admit to oneself that you are making some of the mistakes he talks about. But I also found him generalizing a bit too much in places. Though I found him repetitive throughout, White Like Me is a book worth checking out for its message alone.

I accidentally read a book this week. I had started the new Kazuo Ishiguro when I glanced at the galley for Garlic and Sapphires by Ruth Reichl. I couldn’t resist the allure! I am a food lover. Mr. Bookdwarf and I save up to go eat at fancy restaurants. I cook most nights of the week and make my own pizza dough. So to read the tales of Reichl’s tenure as the restaurant critic for the NYT was unresistable to me. And does she have stories to tell. I love her accounts of transforming herself into different characters to visit each restaurant. It’s also rare for a critic to let you see the real person, flaws and all, beneath them the critical veneer, but Reichl lets it all hang out. My only beef with the book, aside from the fact that the Penguin US site sucks and has no link to the book, is the cover.

Couldn’t they have done better? Her other two books look so much better! Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed this book until the very end, where she sort of rushes to finish. If you love food, check out this book.

I haven’t had much time to read lately, but I did manage to finish Meg Wolitzer’s newest book The Position this morning. I’ve been hearing good things about her for years and the galley appeared on my desk with a nice looking cover and I thought, now’s a good time to check her out. I am glad I did. I like her writing, but was ultimately disappointed with The Position. In my opinion the story falls apart in the end. The Postion follows Paul and Roz Mellow in 1975 who decided to write a sex manual complete with artful drawings of themselves. The novel examines what happens when their 4 children discover the book and how it impacts their lives. To me, there was a huge disconnect between the characters and Wolitzer throws in some drama, just for the sake of throwing in drama. I know I sound like I am trashing the book. In fact, I thought it had great potential and I enjoyed reading it. It wasn’t until I reached the end and thought about the book as a whole that I reached these conclusions.

As you can see from the left hand column, people really want me to read The Archivist by Martha Cooley. After reading the first 25 pages over lunch, I can see why. Thanks for the suggestions!