This book is written by Muriel Barbery, the author of the famous and extremely beautiful book "The Elegance of the Hedgehog". I was expecting so much from the book and I was more than "full" :) It is definitely a "must" once you have read "The Elegance...", because you may want to know what other secondary characters in "The Elegance" are doing 'now", but just prepare to get hungry, while reading and looking for that exquisite flavour... Thank you Bellezza for this great opportunity!
Proust-like cook redefines taste, smell, life.
P.S. Here's a "taste" of this wonderful book:
"Meat is virile, powerful; fish is strange and cruel. It comes from another world, a secret ocean that will never yield to us; it bears witness to the absolute relativity of our existence, and yet it offers itself to us through the ephemeral revelation of unknown realms. When I was savoring these grilled sardines, like an autistic child whom nothing could trouble at that point in time, I knew that this extraordinary confrontation with a sensation from elsewhere was making me human, bringing its contrasting nature to bear to teach me my human essence. Infinite, cruel, primitive, refined ocean; between our avid teeth we seize the products of your mysterious activity. The grilled sardine suffused my palate with its frank and exotic bouquet,with each mouthful I grew more mature, and every time my tongue caressed the marine ash of blistered skin I felt exulted."
P.P.S. Don't click here if you are planning on reading the book :))
2 comments:
Imagine, I sent it to you without reading it first myself. ;) Now I'll have to check it out from the library as you say you like it so much. Love your references to food in your review, as in "full" and "meaty" and the idea that Hedgehog's characters reappear along with one's appetite. So glad you have it on your shelves, sweet Ally.
Ohhhh, but you have to get a taste of it! I was so impressed with so much food description that was both poetic and exquisite it made me hungry all the way through the book. You definitely need talent to write something like that.
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