Customer Reviews

Alice Let's Eat: Further Adventures of a Happy Eater

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Calvin Trillin is my favorite food writer because he is so darned funny. He wrote this book in 1976. At the time, his beloved wife Alice had just been operated on for lung cancer. There is no trace of grim sorrow in this wonderful book, just zest for good food and love for Alice.

This book was just re-issued in conjunction with Trillin's remembrance of Alice called "About Alice." She died in 2001. Read "Alice, Let's Eat" first. Get to know her. Then read "About Alice."

Trillin is a great writer. The first book will make you laugh. "About Alice" will bring you a sad smile. What a remarkable woman. Such a loss. Yet, a life well lived.

My favorite line in "Alice, Let's Eat" is when Trillin is in Owensboro, Kentucky looking for the best barbecued mutton. The waitress tells him that "we have people in here from all over...we had a Puerto Rican in here once."

Read both books. You'll be glad that you did.

Warning: Do not read this book on an empty stomach.

Calvin Trillin invites you into his world of gastronomy and reminds you how much in love, he is with his wife, Alice.
It is a win/win situation. Through Trillin's eyes (and stomach) you find your way through wild game church suppers
and haute cuisine meals,prepared by Paul Bocuse. The journey is joyful, as every adventure is tempered with the
careful consternation and advice of Alice.
Ever mindful of Trillin's tendency towards "excess", Alice's voice reminds us to stop and smell the roses, see the
sights, and perhaps, eat a vegetable along the way.

Anthony Bourdain has built a huge fan base with his wit, his knowledge of food and his ability to interject his unique irreverent personality into any situation that arises.

But as Bourdain's star has ascended in the 21st century, there was a voice in the 1960's, 1970's and 1980's that was so urbane, so witty, and so sophisticated that he must have paved some of the road that Bourdain and his contemporaries rode in on.

Much of Calvin Trillin's charm comes from the fact that he puts his wife, Alice front and center in his writing. The joy of food and the joy in his marriage are intertwined. this makes him a very fortunate man. Further, as my father taught me, any man who can truly laugh at himself owns a special piece of the World. Trillin laughs at his love of food, at his marriage, and on his journey of ascendant meals.

A sample of Trillin's cleverness comes when talking of a salumeria he finds in Nova Scotia. "The sandwich was supposedly "take-out", but I never made it out of the store with one intact." I can only read that sentence with laughter, and a sense of envy for someone who could author that level of humor and sophistication.

Through all his writing is a love of food. A love of the discovery and adventure of regional specialties, and a special, moving love of his wife.

There are times one thinks about the best job in the world. Reading Mr. Trillin fulfills the notion that someone has found it. He is a National Treasure who happily shares his gift with anyone lucky enough to invest the time to savor it.

This is another wonderful book from the witty and perceptive Mr. Trillin. I heartily recommend it.

In this book, his quirkyness really comes to the fore. I cannot get enough of him!

I was really excited to read this book from all the great reviews I had read but did not enjoy it. I guess what I didn't like was his writing style which I found a bit stuffy and formal and the stories he talked about weren't really all that interesting. I got half way through and thought, "Forget it" and put it away, not likely to go back.