mugren's review against another edition
1.0
Despite the stories being true, this book reads like a food blogger written by someone who can’t cook nor write. Also, seeing as how it’s mostly just recipes, I really don’t get why it’s hailed as a popular piece of literature.
natyweiss's review
4.0
-Thank you Harper Perennial Modern Classics-
Alice B Toklas was Gertrude Stein's companion for forty years. When Gertrude passed away, Alice became the custodian of her vast art collection. The Paris apartment that they shared was full of artwork by Picasso, Matisse, and Cezanne, among other valuable artifacts. Alice wrote her memoir in the form of a cookbook. This book is not only a compendium of traditional French cuisine, but it also includes recipes learned during their travels through Europe and America and recipes that she was almost forced to publish in order to make a living.
I've read it in a non-linear way, skimming the recipes and focusing on the cool anecdotes, some of the accounting for their years during the nazi occupation.
My favorite part is the one called "Recipes from Friends" in which she shares the Haschich Fudge recipe (which anyone could whip up on a rainy day), anticipating that "Euphoria and brilliant storms of laughter; ecstatic reveries and extensions of one's personality on several simultaneous planes are to be complacently expected." She goes even further by comparing the journey with an almost mystical experience.
The book is accompanied by some of Alice's own line drawings, demonstrating that her talents were not limited to cooking and writing.
This book is a modern classic that everyone interested in art and literature history and culinary journeys would really enjoy.
Alice B Toklas was Gertrude Stein's companion for forty years. When Gertrude passed away, Alice became the custodian of her vast art collection. The Paris apartment that they shared was full of artwork by Picasso, Matisse, and Cezanne, among other valuable artifacts. Alice wrote her memoir in the form of a cookbook. This book is not only a compendium of traditional French cuisine, but it also includes recipes learned during their travels through Europe and America and recipes that she was almost forced to publish in order to make a living.
I've read it in a non-linear way, skimming the recipes and focusing on the cool anecdotes, some of the accounting for their years during the nazi occupation.
My favorite part is the one called "Recipes from Friends" in which she shares the Haschich Fudge recipe (which anyone could whip up on a rainy day), anticipating that "Euphoria and brilliant storms of laughter; ecstatic reveries and extensions of one's personality on several simultaneous planes are to be complacently expected." She goes even further by comparing the journey with an almost mystical experience.
The book is accompanied by some of Alice's own line drawings, demonstrating that her talents were not limited to cooking and writing.
This book is a modern classic that everyone interested in art and literature history and culinary journeys would really enjoy.
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