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casskrug's review against another edition
4.0
came across this on the shelf while i was browsing my library and snatched it up because i didn’t realize it existed!
we have an unreliable narrator, in the depths of alcoholism and depression, telling someone (a reporter or journalist? there are occasional addresses to another person but it doesn’t feel like the reader is being addressed specifically) about the life and rise to culinary fame of the woman he loves - a virtuosic female chef (referred to as “the cheffe” throughout the book). we learn bits and pieces of the narrator’s life, but his main quality is his unrequited love and reverence for the cheffe. he is a perfect example of the impossibility of knowing everything about someone you love. he claims to have been her closest friend, yet still says “the things I know about the cheffe, the things I'm telling you now, aren't things she revealed to me, they're things I think I've realized on my own.” we see him struggling to untangle her motivations and the secrets she kept from him, and the toll that took on him. since the book isn’t told from the cheffe’s point of view, we have no way of knowing what is true and what the narrator is projecting onto her.
a lot of my enjoyment of this book came from reading the cooking as a metaphor for writing, or creativity in general. i wouldn’t categorize this book as food writing - the focus is not necessarily on the dishes the cheffe makes, but rather how she felt while she was creating. so many passages reminded me of the way writers talk about how writing makes them feel: cooking made her feel “happy for reasons that came only from herself, her endurance, her boldness, her faith in her abilities, and not because someone else… was trying to make her happy, which she never trusted… she wanted to owe the emotion and sensation of happiness to herself alone…”
the cheffe’s love of cooking is all consuming. even when she’s not in the kitchen, she is tirelessly thinking about her next creation. while experimenting in the kitchen, she enjoys an immense solitude and focus that almost reminded me of a room of one’s own by virginia woolf - it is the one room where she is able to do her life’s work and let her creativity flourish. she also demonstrates an immense respect for the ingredients she works with and the process she goes through to transform them that is reminiscent of the high regard in which writers hold the works that have inspired them and their craft.
this was a bit different from her other works that i’ve read so far, but still a really enjoyable read from ndiaye. it’s less unsettling than some of her other works, but it has dense prose, with lots of commas and clauses that weave together. this made it a bit slow going but wasn’t too big of a deal the further i got into the book. as always, can’t wait to pick up another book from her!
we have an unreliable narrator, in the depths of alcoholism and depression, telling someone (a reporter or journalist? there are occasional addresses to another person but it doesn’t feel like the reader is being addressed specifically) about the life and rise to culinary fame of the woman he loves - a virtuosic female chef (referred to as “the cheffe” throughout the book). we learn bits and pieces of the narrator’s life, but his main quality is his unrequited love and reverence for the cheffe. he is a perfect example of the impossibility of knowing everything about someone you love. he claims to have been her closest friend, yet still says “the things I know about the cheffe, the things I'm telling you now, aren't things she revealed to me, they're things I think I've realized on my own.” we see him struggling to untangle her motivations and the secrets she kept from him, and the toll that took on him. since the book isn’t told from the cheffe’s point of view, we have no way of knowing what is true and what the narrator is projecting onto her.
a lot of my enjoyment of this book came from reading the cooking as a metaphor for writing, or creativity in general. i wouldn’t categorize this book as food writing - the focus is not necessarily on the dishes the cheffe makes, but rather how she felt while she was creating. so many passages reminded me of the way writers talk about how writing makes them feel: cooking made her feel “happy for reasons that came only from herself, her endurance, her boldness, her faith in her abilities, and not because someone else… was trying to make her happy, which she never trusted… she wanted to owe the emotion and sensation of happiness to herself alone…”
the cheffe’s love of cooking is all consuming. even when she’s not in the kitchen, she is tirelessly thinking about her next creation. while experimenting in the kitchen, she enjoys an immense solitude and focus that almost reminded me of a room of one’s own by virginia woolf - it is the one room where she is able to do her life’s work and let her creativity flourish. she also demonstrates an immense respect for the ingredients she works with and the process she goes through to transform them that is reminiscent of the high regard in which writers hold the works that have inspired them and their craft.
this was a bit different from her other works that i’ve read so far, but still a really enjoyable read from ndiaye. it’s less unsettling than some of her other works, but it has dense prose, with lots of commas and clauses that weave together. this made it a bit slow going but wasn’t too big of a deal the further i got into the book. as always, can’t wait to pick up another book from her!
bahoulie's review against another edition
3.0
A strange, but engaging book. I felt drawn through it, though I am not sure how much I enjoyed it. It was at least an interesting trip through someone’s obsession.
hanxiety_in_pink's review against another edition
4.0
Another purely aesthetic purchase from me today… but one that turned out to be an absolute feast of fantastic words!
I first picked this up to read in January… but winter months and my bad brain are not happy bedfellows, couple that with a pretty shitty relationship with food and I knew that this was not the right time to be reading a book which HEAVILY centres on food. Happily though, I took this back off my shelf last week and tucked in. What a treat it was!
Translated from the original French this book tells the life story of ‘The Cheffe’, held in the highest regard in her field, but elusive and aloof to those who want to know her. She sacrifices a lot to become the best in her field and these sacrifices come back around to potentially jeopardise what she has worked so hard for.
Her story is narrated by her former assistant (and unrequited lover) and this helps to keep her emotions somewhat of a mystery. She always feels like she is just out of reach of the reader. That was probably my only criticism of the book, I didn’t feel like I was ever allowed to get close to The Cheffe so therefore didn’t emotionally connect with her. I admired her passion and courage of conviction but she wasn’t a character that I liked or understood particularly. That aside, the writing was beautiful, the premise interesting and engaging and if you loved the descriptions of food in Crying In H Mart by @jbrekkie you’ll likely love this too, it’s that, on steroids.
I first picked this up to read in January… but winter months and my bad brain are not happy bedfellows, couple that with a pretty shitty relationship with food and I knew that this was not the right time to be reading a book which HEAVILY centres on food. Happily though, I took this back off my shelf last week and tucked in. What a treat it was!
Translated from the original French this book tells the life story of ‘The Cheffe’, held in the highest regard in her field, but elusive and aloof to those who want to know her. She sacrifices a lot to become the best in her field and these sacrifices come back around to potentially jeopardise what she has worked so hard for.
Her story is narrated by her former assistant (and unrequited lover) and this helps to keep her emotions somewhat of a mystery. She always feels like she is just out of reach of the reader. That was probably my only criticism of the book, I didn’t feel like I was ever allowed to get close to The Cheffe so therefore didn’t emotionally connect with her. I admired her passion and courage of conviction but she wasn’t a character that I liked or understood particularly. That aside, the writing was beautiful, the premise interesting and engaging and if you loved the descriptions of food in Crying In H Mart by @jbrekkie you’ll likely love this too, it’s that, on steroids.
ciarafrances's review
challenging
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
lola425's review against another edition
3.0
I'm not sure how I felt about this book. On the one hand, I felt that it was an interesting look at a complex woman with immense talent who only wanted to cook, and cook her way, but let guilt about her daughter derail her own satisfaction. On the other hand, it was also the narrator's story so you have to wonder how realistic the portrait he paints of the Cheffe is. The narrative was repetitive, but I think that was by design, the narrator was a borderline alcoholic, obsessed with the Cheffe and I think that comes out in the way he tells the story--almost as if the repetition is meant to convince him as much as us.
binnybeenreading's review
i love the cover of this book and i love food and book descriptions of food, but i really don’t have the urge to really read it. life is too short to make myself read a book i don’t really want to read.
samikoonjones's review
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5