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zoer03's review against another edition
1.0
I am sorry I have tried to get into it, but each time I have I don't connect to any character and neither the story or plot helps at all it just feels off and flat and just uninteresting and dull. At least it saves me from using it valuable book shelves space and kindle space an author to not follow in future
jodigraham's review against another edition
2.0
I didn't love this one. There were some lovely pieces of writing: "bobbing in the soup of family" is a phrase I will keep. It was never clear to me where this novel was trying to go, and I didn't like Gabriel enough to care.
raymond_murphy's review against another edition
3.0
I really liked Brick Lane. This was not at that level. Although it had its enjoyable moments.
jrosenstein's review against another edition
2.0
This book was not bad, it just wasn't what I wanted. Which is my own fault for not reading the synopsis more carefully. I wanted sort of a fictional Kitchen Confidential , a picture of life in a high-pressure restaurant kitchen, focusing on the different cultures and backgrounds of the people who work there. Instead, Ali focuses almost solely on the executive chef and his spiral into a nervous breakdown, which frankly, is just not that interesting. And it's really hard to read a book written in from a character's viewpoint when that character keeps making stupid decisions. Ali throws in some stuff about human trafficking, but overall I just wasn't that into it. And for a book called In the Kitchen , there really should have been more scenes set there.
tararoi_'s review against another edition
2.0
it was fine, but the last quarter of the book left me wondering why i kept reading it in the first place. it was slightly annoying.
wrentheblurry's review against another edition
2.0
I didn't finish this one before my book club meeting. I got sucked into The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and couldn't start this one til too late. More importantly, it just was not very good. The back cover promised sexual obsession, human smuggling and a man that goes insane, but that never happened before chapter 7, when I quit. Meh, not going to renew this one!
lavoiture's review against another edition
2.0
*Whew* I feel better after reading some of the other reviews. I, too, won this from Godoreads and I really wanted to like it. I like cooking, I like chefs, I like mysteries...wait a second, it's not a mystery? For some reason I thought it was a mystery. Ok, that's ok, it's not a mystery, so it's about...um...people who are bipolar? Restaurant kitchens? Cancer? The illegal trade of people in London? Prostitutes? Childhood memories? The mills closing in England? I mean, there are so many stories going on here that I can't figure out what it's really supposed to be about, Gordon Lightfoot finding out something about his mother and then immediately following on the same path was a bit much for me. The writing isn't bad, but the story is no good. It's about 150 pages too long, on top of it all. I'm struggling to finish, but as I'm pretty much done, I'm already writing my review. I feel done with it, so why not?
ewg109's review against another edition
I started a new shelf in honor of this book, "didn't finish." I just can't go on with this book. Its like Anthony Bourdain and Zadie Smith tried to create a work of fiction together. Its completely awkward and rather uncomfortable.
vanessar's review against another edition
4.0
A great book, lots of well-rounded characters. It's an all-round portrait of 21st century living, touching on loss of a sense of community, immigration and celebrity culture. One phrase has stuck: ''TV chefs aren't about filling a hole in the stomach, they're about filling a hole in the life''.
nappower's review against another edition
4.0
i quite enjoyed this - maybe i'm quite enjoying everything that isn't a law textbook these days. ha! monica ali handles the protagonist's unravelling so subtly that you're eventually a talking heads lyrics asking yourself, well, how did i get here? ... in a weird way too, especially given ali's straightforward, everyday style, i never felt sympathy for characters themselves, but perhaps what they represented socially/culturally etc. long read populated by people i wouldn't want to know in real life, but hey, that's what books can do. yay.