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alundeberg's review
4.0
It's funny how other reviewers of A.J. Liebling's "Between Meals: An Appetite for Paris" are disgusted by what a glutton he is. What else, exactly, are they expecting from a book with the words "meals" and "appetite" in its title to be about? Liebling, with his despair of the growing focus on the health of the human liver and how French doctors transitioned from just alleviating their patients' indigestion to trying to keep their patients--ahem-- healthy, would hold such readers in equal disdain. What are they living for if not to enjoy life and all it has to offer? Go ahead, he'd say, eat your celery.
Despite being a consummate oatmeal-eater, I thoroughly enjoyed Liebling's collection of essays as I, too, have an appetite for Paris. His work serves as an antidote to Hemingway's often bitter "A Movable Feast". He was a student in Paris in the Twenties, but instead of trying to be the alpha and create a code of manliness, he and his stomach blessed their great fortune in living in the food capital of the world. While many of Hemingway's haunts still thrive today, buoyed by American visitors over the decades, Liebling sought out the lesser known establishments, those smaller places whose chefs churned out works of genius, but through war, family squabbles, and the economy shut down during his own lifetime. We can still visit Hemingway's Paris, but we cannot Liebling's. His descriptions of the food he ate, the people he met, and the places he visited still transport us back to that lost time. His self-deprecating tone and quietly savage humor make this a joy to read.
While this book is ostensibly about food (although he forays into his other favorite topics: boxing and women), it is also about how to live life. He says that one should have a good appetite "that gives the eater room to move around in" (4) and to "have enough money to pay the check but not enough to produce indifference at the size of the total" (51). Moving around in our appetite allows us to stray from the meal we ordered, and if while eating our meal of steak frites, the proprietor brings out some cassoulet, we do not shake our heads, but tuck in. How do we know what our tastes are if we don't try everything? Those who are able to eat often in high class restaurants may think they are getting the best of what there is to offer, but Liebling argues that their experience is too limited. They instead suffer from being told what is good rather than finding out for themselves, and by constraining themselves to a limited menu, miss out on all of the other varieties of food. Their ability to pay the bill and not blink renders their meals pedestrian. We should, instead, know what we are getting for our money and be very discriminating in how we spend it. If we were to apply these tenets to our daily experiences to how we eat and spend our time and energy, not only would we have a fuller belly, but also a fuller life. Liebling, ironically, calls to mind Count Mipipopulous from Hemingway's "The Sun Also Rises" who says, "all I want out of wines is to enjoy them" (66).
Despite being a consummate oatmeal-eater, I thoroughly enjoyed Liebling's collection of essays as I, too, have an appetite for Paris. His work serves as an antidote to Hemingway's often bitter "A Movable Feast". He was a student in Paris in the Twenties, but instead of trying to be the alpha and create a code of manliness, he and his stomach blessed their great fortune in living in the food capital of the world. While many of Hemingway's haunts still thrive today, buoyed by American visitors over the decades, Liebling sought out the lesser known establishments, those smaller places whose chefs churned out works of genius, but through war, family squabbles, and the economy shut down during his own lifetime. We can still visit Hemingway's Paris, but we cannot Liebling's. His descriptions of the food he ate, the people he met, and the places he visited still transport us back to that lost time. His self-deprecating tone and quietly savage humor make this a joy to read.
While this book is ostensibly about food (although he forays into his other favorite topics: boxing and women), it is also about how to live life. He says that one should have a good appetite "that gives the eater room to move around in" (4) and to "have enough money to pay the check but not enough to produce indifference at the size of the total" (51). Moving around in our appetite allows us to stray from the meal we ordered, and if while eating our meal of steak frites, the proprietor brings out some cassoulet, we do not shake our heads, but tuck in. How do we know what our tastes are if we don't try everything? Those who are able to eat often in high class restaurants may think they are getting the best of what there is to offer, but Liebling argues that their experience is too limited. They instead suffer from being told what is good rather than finding out for themselves, and by constraining themselves to a limited menu, miss out on all of the other varieties of food. Their ability to pay the bill and not blink renders their meals pedestrian. We should, instead, know what we are getting for our money and be very discriminating in how we spend it. If we were to apply these tenets to our daily experiences to how we eat and spend our time and energy, not only would we have a fuller belly, but also a fuller life. Liebling, ironically, calls to mind Count Mipipopulous from Hemingway's "The Sun Also Rises" who says, "all I want out of wines is to enjoy them" (66).
jakemoss2011's review
adventurous
lighthearted
slow-paced
5.0
Dripping with personality, and what a personality. I went straight out to buy a Guinea hen and some oysters.
beepbeepbooks's review
adventurous
lighthearted
reflective
sad
medium-paced
3.5
sumptious, but perhaps not filling. Easy for Liebling to digress or lament rather than inform, but he does have a way of getting into the story through different ways that comforts me.