A review by liberrydude
Everything But the Squeal: Eating the Whole Hog in Northern Spain by John Barlow

4.0

An enjoyable and humorous read through what you should call the un-Spain, Galicia. Barlow, an Englishman, is married to the lovely Susana, a Gallega, and they live in Coruna with their son, Nico. I bought this book based on Nancy Pearl's recommendation. I'm glad I did. In Barlow's quest to eat everything from a hog we are subjected to a vivacious zest for all things Galician. My wife's family comes from Galicia and I'm ready to visit there and even possibly retire there. One of the only things that really bothered me about this book was the total absence of pictures and a map. During the course of the narrative he was always taking pictures of people and food but nary a one appears in the book. And maybe that's a good thing because the beauty of Galicia would just motivate more people to move there and destroy it; but somehow I don't think the Gallegos would let that happen.