novella
Active Member
Bourdain was mentioned briefly in the cookbook thread, but he might like his own, as he is also a novelist and wrote some nonfiction too.
I loved Kitchen Confidential. It was a real breakthrough genre book when it came out, and hilarious/scary as well. I have a chef friend who worked for "Bigfoot" and verifies the authenticity of all Bourdain's anecdotes. Also my sis is a professional chef and lives the life. I love books that open a door like that.
Believe it or not, I'd read Bourdain before that: the novel A Bone in the Throat, which is a mafios murder mystery kind of set in the Bigfoot restaurant of Kitchen Confidential. It's an amateurish book that had some local color that I appreciated. I like his breezy style, too.
Unfortunately I think his Typhoid Mary nonfiction book, which followed Confidential, was unreadable. The subject was awful, the writing was forced. Really not good in any way.
And now I think he's stuck in a schtick. How many times can you say, "this tastes SOOOOO good"? I wish that he would move on to some kind of New Journalism writing, a la Hunter S. and Mailer and Capote and Wolfe. To me, he's right in line for that, and should walk away from the food stuff. He's much fresher when he's writing about the nefarious activities of bad people.
I loved Kitchen Confidential. It was a real breakthrough genre book when it came out, and hilarious/scary as well. I have a chef friend who worked for "Bigfoot" and verifies the authenticity of all Bourdain's anecdotes. Also my sis is a professional chef and lives the life. I love books that open a door like that.
Believe it or not, I'd read Bourdain before that: the novel A Bone in the Throat, which is a mafios murder mystery kind of set in the Bigfoot restaurant of Kitchen Confidential. It's an amateurish book that had some local color that I appreciated. I like his breezy style, too.
Unfortunately I think his Typhoid Mary nonfiction book, which followed Confidential, was unreadable. The subject was awful, the writing was forced. Really not good in any way.
And now I think he's stuck in a schtick. How many times can you say, "this tastes SOOOOO good"? I wish that he would move on to some kind of New Journalism writing, a la Hunter S. and Mailer and Capote and Wolfe. To me, he's right in line for that, and should walk away from the food stuff. He's much fresher when he's writing about the nefarious activities of bad people.
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