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A review by algauthor
The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister
3.0
3.5 stars.
The food part of this book was splendid and tantalizing...I looked up a couple of recipes while reading it. The back-stories of the characters before they came to the cooking class were interesting, heart-wrenching, and I enjoyed the back-and-forth story structure as each character was explored during each cooking class, during the preparation of a specific dish or meal.
But the novel was short (240 pages), and I feel that this was only about 2/3 of the story. The novel begs, I believe, a deeper exploration of how the students' lives intertwined and changed because of the class, not just a line or two in the epilogue. Because of that, it just seemed incomplete. I know there is a certain appeal to open-endedness, and being able to imagine what happens to all the characters, but the drop-off point here was too soon.
I still liked it, though, and would recommend it, particularly to anyone who is interested in cooking.
The food part of this book was splendid and tantalizing...I looked up a couple of recipes while reading it. The back-stories of the characters before they came to the cooking class were interesting, heart-wrenching, and I enjoyed the back-and-forth story structure as each character was explored during each cooking class, during the preparation of a specific dish or meal.
But the novel was short (240 pages), and I feel that this was only about 2/3 of the story. The novel begs, I believe, a deeper exploration of how the students' lives intertwined and changed because of the class, not just a line or two in the epilogue. Because of that, it just seemed incomplete. I know there is a certain appeal to open-endedness, and being able to imagine what happens to all the characters, but the drop-off point here was too soon.
I still liked it, though, and would recommend it, particularly to anyone who is interested in cooking.