PositiveThe New York Times Book ReviewThe life of Beshaleba River Puffin Rodell has been as unusual as her name ... Her outsider status has also left her well positioned to excavate the history of restaurant criticism and the role of those who have practiced it. She relays this with remarkable clarity and explains how it’s shaped her own work ... It’s this analysis that renders Rodell’s book an essential read for anyone who’s interested in cultural criticism ... Packing all of the above into one book is a tall order, and if Rodell’s has a flaw, it’s in its structure. The moving parts can seem disjointed and, although the intention behind the structure is a meaningful one, the execution feels forced ... As she explains in her epilogue, she used the table of contents from Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential as inspiration for her own. Titled \'Tony,\' the section is dedicated to him. But, however genuine the sentiment, to end on a man whose shadow looms so large detracts from her own story ... It certainly shouldn’t deter anyone from reading it. Rodell’s memoir is a singular accomplishment. And if this publication were to hire her as a dining critic in New York, there would be no complaints from this reader.
Maryse Condé, Trans. by Richard Philcox
PositiveThe New York Times Book ReviewAdeptly translated ... In much the same way that her fiction has acted as a form of resistance to what she sees as the limitations of postcolonial literature, Condé’s cooking initially emerged as an act of defiance against the fussy strictness of her mother, who asserted that \'only stupid people like to cook\' ... Her food writing can also be seen as a rebellion against the tropes attached to that genre ... Neither does Condé bathe food in the romantic light that renders it a clichéd symbol of nostalgia or exoticism. In fact, she avoids romanticization almost entirely...she can be unforgivingly critical ... Condé has theorized about what she terms \'literary cannibalism,\' and in the kitchen she practices what might be called \'culinary cannibalism.\' These metaphorical acts allow both Condé’s writing and her food to transcend national or cultural delineation ... presents an alternative to the standard culinary memoir, committing an even greater \'crime of treason\' than that of comparing writing to cooking: She asserts food writing’s rightful place among the literary arts. Both the genre and its readers are all the richer for it.
