Dear Bibliotherapist,
I seem to spend most of my day thinking about what to cook for the next meal. Do you have any suggestions of good literature combining food and great prose, so that I can daydream about food at the same time as absorbing some culture?
Dear Delicious Day Dreamer,
Luckily for you, you’re in good company – many a starving author has spent most of a book fantasising
about food, and a feast of authors are out there for your literary taste buds to savour. Start with Emile Zola, who wrote “The Belly of Paris” as the third novel in his epic series “Les Rougon-Macquart,” about two intertwining families – a cycle which includes the famous tragedy, “Therese Raquin”. This story revolves around Florent Quenu, from the poor and disreputable side of the saga, who was unjustly deported to Devil’s Island, the prison. He escapes and makes his way back to Paris, and is literally starving. He tries to start a new life in the enormous sprawling food Market, Les Halles, and much of the action of the novel takes place around this abundance of fabulous food. Zola is fascinated as much by the preparation of food for it to become gourmet meals, as the production and procuration of food, for every level of life. The new 2009 translation by Mark Kurlansky whisks you along with visceral excitement.
Another great French novel that is firmly centered around food, is "Cuttlefish" by Maryline Desbiolles. This is a far more gentle and pensive book than Zola’s, as the action takes place one evening when the narrator takes us through each step of a recipe for cooking cuttlefish. While she cooks, she ruminates, remembering childhood events, pondering over femininity, who is coming to eat this repast, and so on. Her language and tone is poetic and philosophical, with something of the Mrs Dalloway preparing for a party in its tone.
A more robust and humorous look at the joys of food in life, would be Laura Lockington’s wonderful
“Cupboard Love”. This hilarious memoir heads each chapter with a recipe that you immediately want to rush out and create, while reading the ensuing episode in the author’s life during which this dish was key.We have a funeral feast dominated by the aroma of a cider-soaked ham, that the young Laura was allowed to push the cloves into and later enjoy at the Wake, even though she was deemed too young to attend the funeral itself: smoked trout pate heads the chapter about her appalling stepmother-to-be, referred to as the Trout (in this chapter we see Laura, aged 12, swept to Paris by her charismatic uncles, for a surprise birthday lunch where she gamely tries everything, even sinister moving molluscs, with lashings of champagne); fish pie becomes the humble antidote to her brief but flamboyant career in advertising. This is a wonderful, riotous read; both your taste-buds and your desire for some culture will be more than fulfilled.
After this romp through recipes, an unashamed romance that centers around food might be the perfectread for you. You need to be swept away by the unfairness of thwarted love, while reveling in the recipes that punctuate the narrative. “Like Water for Chocolate” by Laura Esquivel is a poignant tale that describes the frustrated love of Tita and Pedro, who live close to each other in unconsummated passion for 22 years. Magic, mad moments in which food has a profound effect on all that consume it to the point where it changes their lives occur throughout the tale, and you will find yourself taking your food fantasies to new realms that might stir interesting new feelings in those who share your culinary discoveries.
Ella Berthoud is a bilbliotherapist at The School of Life. For more information about the service, click here
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