Criticalcompendium

Sheppard Lee, Written by Himself, by Robert Montgomery Bird

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 11:49:08 +0000

“So, you’ve been looking for an early 19th-century novel about metempsychosis? Look no further. Robert Montgomery Bird’s Sheppard Lee, Written by Himself is back in print. What? You are not an ardent follower of tales of the metempsychotic? Let me explain. Metempsychosis is the transference of the soul or spirit from one body to another after death. Sounds like the kind of story Edgar Allan Poe might write. In fact, Poe himself reviewed Bird’s novel when it was first published in 1836.” Read the review at the Philadelphia Inquirer.

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Artists in Exile: How Refugees From Twentieth-Century War and Revolution Transformed the American Performing Arts, by Joseph Horowitz

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 13:01:39 +0000

“It is hard to imagine where American culture would be today without the contributions of Hitler and Stalin — that is, without the thousands of creatively gifted refugees who fled these murderers. A good many cultural historians and writers have explored this meaty subject from different angles since Anthony Heilbut’s 1983 landmark, “Exiled in Paradise” (still the best book on the topic). And now, in “Artists in Exile,” Joseph Horowitz has taken a crack at it. Horowitz, a former music critic for The New York Times and the author of seven previous books, including the superb trio “Understanding Toscanini,” “Wagner Nights” and “Classical Music in America,” is well versed in this subject.” Read the review at the New York Times.

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I Like Food, Food Tastes Good by Kara Zuaro

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 12:50:00 +0000

“I Like Food, Food Tastes Good,’ (is) a compendium of recipes submitted by the likes of Mick Cooke from Belle and Sebastian, Sam Fogarino of Interpol, and RJ “RJD2? Krohn. The book takes its title from a Descendents song, and it approaches its topic matter with a similarly unpretentious aura of nonchalant cool.’ Read the review at Flak Magazine.

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The River Cottage Meat Book, by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 12:48:39 +0000

“Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall (is) a British food celebrity. He is forty-two, principally a journalist and television host by trade, who wears inexpensive horn-rimmed glasses so familiar to his British audience that they are now a piece of instant anti-branding branding. The look, like his dress (muddy Wellington boots, soiled linen jacket, the mess of the occasional apron) and his long, sometimes washed, hippyish brown hair (often pictured dangling in his face and over the dishes he is preparing), conveys a no-nonsense disregard for appearances and petty courtesies and an earnest commitment to a higher truth.’ Read the review at the New Yorker.

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Taste: The Story of Britain Through Its Cooking, by Kate Colquhoun

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 12:47:27 +0000

“(Since Kate) Colquhoun is a writer of lively detail rather than argument - you might say her book is too busy stuffing its face, one course after another, to pause for conversation - the question of why Britain developed such a poor cuisine is never fully addressed.’ Read the review at the International Herald Tribune.

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My Life in France, by Julia Child, with Alex Prud’homme

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 12:46:11 +0000

“Without her we wouldn’t have Rachel Ray, Nigella Lawson, or the Jamie Oliver. We wouldn’t have the French cooking bible, Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Without her, Bon Appetite would not be in the pop culture lexicon. My Life in France tells the story of how the inspiration epicure, Julia Child, was born.’ Read the review at Small Spiral Notebook.

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Tastes Like Cuba: An Exile’s Hunger for Home, by Eduardo Machado and Michael Domitrovich

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 12:44:56 +0000

“In his eccentric and often affecting memoir “Tastes Like Cuba,” Machado, a noted Cuban-American playwright, tells the story of his rootless, self-invented life, using food as his connecting thread. After his grandfather boasts that his arroz con pollo “will taste just like Cuba,” Machado thinks: “How do you make a meal taste like a place? I should have asked him directly. Instead, I spent the rest of my life looking for the answer.” “Tastes Like Cuba” deals with Machado’s struggle to come to terms with the painful and confusing contradictions of exile. It also has a lot of great Cuban recipes. (The garlic chicken with sour oranges is killer.)” Read the review at the New York Times.

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A Short History of the American Stomach, by Frederick Kaufman

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 12:43:42 +0000

“Don’t be surprised if you’re feeling queasy after reading Frederick Kaufman’s brief but comprehensive examination of our collective guts. The glut of information within—and what it all means to (and for) America—is enough to make even the strongest stomach turn.As a country, we are preoccupied with food. Hundreds of diet books line shelves, while the Food Network is available in 90 million homes (and has spawned a troupe of celebrity chefs).” Read the review at Time Out New York.

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Shooting War by Anthony Lappé and Dan Goldman

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 12:39:50 +0000

“Shooting War,’ writer Anthony Lappé and illustrator Dan Goldman’s glossy, all-color graphic novel, is (a) political satire focused on the business of corrupt journalism, wars on terror (specifically the war in Iraq before it smoothly transitions into the war in Iran), and networks shaking hands with governments.’ Read the review at the Austin Chronicle.

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The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier, by Alan Moore

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 12:38:56 +0000

“Years before its publication, Alan Moore described “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier” as “not my best comic ever, not the best comic ever, but the best thing ever. Better than the Roman civilisation, penicillin … and the human nervous system. Better than creation. Better than the big bang. It’s quite good.” The third volume in his “League” series with artist Kevin O’Neill is indeed not Moore’s best comic ever — it doesn’t have the emotional force or formal coherence of “Watchmen” or “Lost Girls” or “V for Vendetta,” and it doesn’t pretend to. But there’s a certain kind of hyper-referential cleverness at which nobody else is even in Moore’s, well, league.’ Read the review at Salon.com.

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