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rainierbooks 's review for:
In the Kitchen
by Monica Ali
The 500plus pages of "In the Kitchen" leave me pretty confused. What did Monica Ali want with this novel? I picked it up a couple of years ago at Foyle's on Charing Cross Street in London wanting to read a Londonish book that dealt with the fast changes this metropolis had gone through, but read it first now in the times of Corona.
The central figure is Gabriel Lightfoot, the chef of the kitchen of the old Imperial Hotel in central London. A Ukrainian employee dies, a Belorussian woman called Lena moves into Gabriel's flat and becomes his center of affection and he throws away almost everything he's ever worked for in his life including his love for the amazing singer Charlie.
There are elements of a crime novel when some people around the Imperial are suspected of gtrafficking. There is he story of Gabriel and his father Ted and his sister Jenny. There are ideological disputes between Gabe and his father and with the politician Fairweather that are more like op eds for the Guardian or the New York Times. At the same time there is so much talent in Monica Cali's writing, she is very descriptive with a great sense for atmosphere. But I also thought if it was really necessary to write 550 pages and if a lector should not have tried to make this shorter and give it a clear and unmistakable focus.
The central figure is Gabriel Lightfoot, the chef of the kitchen of the old Imperial Hotel in central London. A Ukrainian employee dies, a Belorussian woman called Lena moves into Gabriel's flat and becomes his center of affection and he throws away almost everything he's ever worked for in his life including his love for the amazing singer Charlie.
There are elements of a crime novel when some people around the Imperial are suspected of gtrafficking. There is he story of Gabriel and his father Ted and his sister Jenny. There are ideological disputes between Gabe and his father and with the politician Fairweather that are more like op eds for the Guardian or the New York Times. At the same time there is so much talent in Monica Cali's writing, she is very descriptive with a great sense for atmosphere. But I also thought if it was really necessary to write 550 pages and if a lector should not have tried to make this shorter and give it a clear and unmistakable focus.