Review of 'The school of essential ingredients' on 'Goodreads'
2 stars
This book is what happens to a culture that is saturated by “reality TV.” Each character gets his or her moment in the spotlight only to fade away into the background once their turn is over. We don’t get much depth of anyone’s personality, history, or goals; instead, we get a series of short stories, each with a happy ending.
Somewhat reminiscent of A Visit from the Goon Squad and Olive Kitteridge, The School of Essential Ingredients features a different character in each chapter. Unfortunately, the narrative voice never changes even as we read about the frazzled young mother, or the widower, or the insecure young woman, or the elderly couple with a Secret. As a result, some of the characters fuzzed together (Ian and Tom were particularly interchangeable).
The “cooking school” that formed the nexus of the group didn’t teach much cooking. Typical was the instruction to “add some …
This book is what happens to a culture that is saturated by “reality TV.” Each character gets his or her moment in the spotlight only to fade away into the background once their turn is over. We don’t get much depth of anyone’s personality, history, or goals; instead, we get a series of short stories, each with a happy ending.
Somewhat reminiscent of A Visit from the Goon Squad and Olive Kitteridge, The School of Essential Ingredients features a different character in each chapter. Unfortunately, the narrative voice never changes even as we read about the frazzled young mother, or the widower, or the insecure young woman, or the elderly couple with a Secret. As a result, some of the characters fuzzed together (Ian and Tom were particularly interchangeable).
The “cooking school” that formed the nexus of the group didn’t teach much cooking. Typical was the instruction to “add some water” to make masa for tamales. “How much?” the student asks. “Do what makes sense,” she is told.
Turns out that the instructor, Lillian, has a Gift for understanding People, and her cooking school is a cover for helping her students uncover their True Selves. This book hinted at other themes (the simple goodness of fresh ingredients; cooking and eating slowly), but in the end we bounce from feel-good story to feel-good story as if the author didn’t trust our attention span. The book made me hunger for good, in-depth character studies like Jonathan Franzen’s [b:Freedom|7905092|Freedom|Jonathan Franzen|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1316729686s/7905092.jpg|9585796].