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A review by kairosdreaming
Be My Guest: Reflections on Food, Community and the Meaning of Generosity by Priya Basil
3.0
I hesitate to call this a memoir, auto-biography, or any label such as that. It wasn't about the author so much as it was about her thoughts on the world, particularly as the title suggests: food, community and generosity. And she does cover these three topics, some more than others, to lay out her experiences and views with how she's seen the world evolve and how community and generosity often go hand in hand (and of course a lot of times food is involved).
We are introduced to Basil by her love of food and never having 'enough'. She had enough in the real sense, but not in the want sense, which she describes for herself as insatiable. This theme kind of runs through all of her experiences where she has a worry of self (she's actually quite honest about herself in this book and that was refreshing) even though she has been brought up in a family that values community and takes hosting very seriously. The book meanders from there to different types of hosting, explores the Sikh community and their open table, and even reflects on friendly dinners and the hosting attributes of those. It also talks about immigration and the hosting of immigrants in her country of Germany.
I almost want to call this stream of consciousness writing. While it's elegantly done and Basil is an exceptional writer, it did meander all over the place and didn't always have smooth transitions. Not really my style of book, but she did hit on a lot of different topics. And admittedly, when the first reflection in the title is 'food' I expected maybe more thorough descriptions of food. There were some, but maybe I'm just as insatiable in my want as the author.
This was a good book, with interesting topics. While it didn't end up being to my taste entirely, it was a quick read and I even learned a little.
Review by M. Reynard 2020
We are introduced to Basil by her love of food and never having 'enough'. She had enough in the real sense, but not in the want sense, which she describes for herself as insatiable. This theme kind of runs through all of her experiences where she has a worry of self (she's actually quite honest about herself in this book and that was refreshing) even though she has been brought up in a family that values community and takes hosting very seriously. The book meanders from there to different types of hosting, explores the Sikh community and their open table, and even reflects on friendly dinners and the hosting attributes of those. It also talks about immigration and the hosting of immigrants in her country of Germany.
I almost want to call this stream of consciousness writing. While it's elegantly done and Basil is an exceptional writer, it did meander all over the place and didn't always have smooth transitions. Not really my style of book, but she did hit on a lot of different topics. And admittedly, when the first reflection in the title is 'food' I expected maybe more thorough descriptions of food. There were some, but maybe I'm just as insatiable in my want as the author.
This was a good book, with interesting topics. While it didn't end up being to my taste entirely, it was a quick read and I even learned a little.
Review by M. Reynard 2020