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rebjam 's review for:
In the Kitchen
by Monica Ali
This book is filled with beautiful, descriptive turns of a phrase that made me envious of Ali's talent. This is the tale of a British chef, working to prove he can manage his own restaurant to two rich backers and along the way meanders the multi-cultural kitchen/hotel staff, navigates the changes in English culture and social psyches while falling into a detached sexual obsession for a ghost of a girl who might hold the key to illegal labor activities among the hotel's management.
I enjoyed the first 2/3rd of the tale but became impatient for it to end. I skimmed the last fifty pages; never understanding Gabe's obsession for Lena who the reader can barely understand or sympathize with as Gabe couldn't get more than five words and listless sex out of her--why did he throw away everything including a beautiful, sexy fiance? Was Lena some specter of his dead mother, a woman whom Gabe never realized suffered from a bi-polar disorder? Gabe is credited with being able to "read" people's character but what you realize is he's very bad at reading the people close to himself and terrible at understanding himself entirely.
I enjoyed the first 2/3rd of the tale but became impatient for it to end. I skimmed the last fifty pages; never understanding Gabe's obsession for Lena who the reader can barely understand or sympathize with as Gabe couldn't get more than five words and listless sex out of her--why did he throw away everything including a beautiful, sexy fiance? Was Lena some specter of his dead mother, a woman whom Gabe never realized suffered from a bi-polar disorder? Gabe is credited with being able to "read" people's character but what you realize is he's very bad at reading the people close to himself and terrible at understanding himself entirely.