Kasa Cotugno's Reviews > The Paris Novel

why?

I really enjoyed Delicious! (her first fictional work)

The originality of this story was great, but didn't quite land like the first one

100%

I'm only half way thru & I will finish this book, but Reich is not a very good writer. The book is just 1 stereotype & cliche after another

It’s a love affair … with gross food. Very disappointing writing style from a memoirist and food critic that otherwise, previously, had beautifully stimulated my senses vicariously. I didn’t like being grossed out with foie gras after foie gras, which I have tasted.
Despite what she writes I will never try it again. And I’m not sure I will read a Reichl novel again.

I loved Delicious! but this … not so much.

Thanks, Barbara Drew, for your remarks about the gross food. As a vegan, I had to skip over many, many paragraphs. I know how this will sound to those who eat animal products, but my reason for sticking Tov this diet, has to do with cruelty to sentient beings who happen not to be human. I am hoping I don’t have nightmares.

I also felt incredulous about the protagonist being an Audrey Hepburn- like ingenue who everyone falls in love with.

But I let those reservations slide because I just loved the portrayals of the real people and the Paris of the late 70s and early 80s. Ruth Reichl is remarkable when she writes about the spirit of that place and time and those who love art and literature, food and fashion.