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ghost_of_the_library 's review for:
Pomegranate Soup
by Marsha Mehran
Well...what a disappointment..and it showed so much promise!
Sometimes i really wish people would stop trying to replicate whatever "book of the moment" is currently making the rounds on table talks and internet forums....half the time they fail horribly, then sometimes like here you feel actually sad, because you see a good story with many right ingredients, but its execution is flawed.
Pomegranate Soup tells the tale of 3 iranian sisters fleeing the revolution that deposed the Shah for safer Europe - Marjan, Laila and Bahar - a dark secret unites them, but so do a set of peculiar gifts that are, yes you guessed it, food related.
Somehow, fleeing a dark secret they left in Iran, they end up in Ireland, in a sleepy little town full of they typical people you will meet in these kinds of places.
Here they open a cafe, Babylon, where Marjan and her magical cooking skills work wonders on the sleepy town...or try anyways...because the story really fails in evoking the feel of "classics" such as chocolat or like water for chocolate, even if so much of these books is in here, along with traces of other "classics" within the genre.
Do i need to say more regarding the story? no i dont, you no doubt have guessed all of it by now and yes you are 85% correct i would say.
Everything is here - sisters, magical realism in the shape of cooking skils, lush green setting in the shape of ireland, fascinating recipes, dark secrets from the past, standard set of characters with "problems"/flaws in need of fixing.
Yet nothing quite delivers towards making this more than just a tolerable read on a hot summer day at the beach...its really a shame, because it shows such promise and has all the right ingredients - i am torn between wondering if the author was "forced" to take a different direction due to some form of pressure from her publishing house, or if she read too much stuff while researching for this and just ended up confusing it all while putting pen to paper.
One thing i am keeping for myself is a copy of all the recipes - and those i really do recommend that the more adventurous reader tries them - i know some from my own previous travelling experiences and they are worth the trouble! delicious!
she meant well, that much i can tell, and for the recipes that are good - this gets 3.5 stars from me, but i dont think i will be reaching for the sequel anytime soon.
Sometimes i really wish people would stop trying to replicate whatever "book of the moment" is currently making the rounds on table talks and internet forums....half the time they fail horribly, then sometimes like here you feel actually sad, because you see a good story with many right ingredients, but its execution is flawed.
Pomegranate Soup tells the tale of 3 iranian sisters fleeing the revolution that deposed the Shah for safer Europe - Marjan, Laila and Bahar - a dark secret unites them, but so do a set of peculiar gifts that are, yes you guessed it, food related.
Somehow, fleeing a dark secret they left in Iran, they end up in Ireland, in a sleepy little town full of they typical people you will meet in these kinds of places.
Here they open a cafe, Babylon, where Marjan and her magical cooking skills work wonders on the sleepy town...or try anyways...because the story really fails in evoking the feel of "classics" such as chocolat or like water for chocolate, even if so much of these books is in here, along with traces of other "classics" within the genre.
Do i need to say more regarding the story? no i dont, you no doubt have guessed all of it by now and yes you are 85% correct i would say.
Everything is here - sisters, magical realism in the shape of cooking skils, lush green setting in the shape of ireland, fascinating recipes, dark secrets from the past, standard set of characters with "problems"/flaws in need of fixing.
Yet nothing quite delivers towards making this more than just a tolerable read on a hot summer day at the beach...its really a shame, because it shows such promise and has all the right ingredients - i am torn between wondering if the author was "forced" to take a different direction due to some form of pressure from her publishing house, or if she read too much stuff while researching for this and just ended up confusing it all while putting pen to paper.
One thing i am keeping for myself is a copy of all the recipes - and those i really do recommend that the more adventurous reader tries them - i know some from my own previous travelling experiences and they are worth the trouble! delicious!
she meant well, that much i can tell, and for the recipes that are good - this gets 3.5 stars from me, but i dont think i will be reaching for the sequel anytime soon.