Customer Reviews

Bittersweet Journey: A Modestly Erotic Novel of Love, Longing, and Chocolate

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4 star:		(1)
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The photography, the story, the knowledge of chocolate -- altogether Enid Futterman's Bittersweet Journey is a delight for all the senses. Perhaps the first of its kind, it is a visual novel, and it is just beautiful. In this deliciously rich and psychologically profound piece of work, the photography is every bit as evocative as the narrative.

It is the story of a woman sprung loose from her marriage who begins an obsessive journey to find the right man via the great capitals of chocolate. Sampling love the way she samples truffles, Charlotte scours Vienna, Munich, Zurich, Brussels, London, Paris, Hawaii, New York and New Hapshire (where the most delicious real ganache is housed in the unlikely bodies of chocolate mice) finding bad boys and beautiful chocolates to arouse her.

But most significantly, Bittersweet Journey is the story of journey into the interior of a woman, a dark tour of the female psyche where longing and love are indistinguishable. Enid Futterman writes in a sharp, spare, deeply poetic way that is reminiscent of Jean Rhys and Marguerite Duras, and comes up with something that will resonate in the heart, mind and palate for a long time to come.

Like a fine truffle this book seems best consumed in one or two bites ... marvelous bites. The text is the most poetic prose I have read in some time, and the stunning photographs (also by the author) make the various chocolates as delicious, alive and sensuous as the book's heroine, Charlotte. I found the "journey" hauntingly appealing. It is alternately nostalgic, melancholy, exciting, intriguing, fulfilling ... but always permeated by an atmosphere of longing and the "bittersweet."

It is also a most unique and sophisticated book. The chocolate stands as both metaphor and solid object in the writing, with recipes for some of its delicacies spelled out in an appendix. The design of the book and its pages is beautiful, unusual and clever: a perfect complement to the text. Yet it is one of the rare cases where the whole seems even greater than some very high-quality parts. A delicious book.

Deep questions are looked at and lived .Wisdom gained by walking the razor's edge is on on nearly every page .

I know several people who need these questions explored and I'm glad there is this book to recommend.

There is more than enough chocolate lore and lust for anyone...and who thought there ever COULD be enough?

Fnid Futterman understands .

Also having Ms Futterman's own photos illustrate her journey added, on many levels, a wholeness of vision .

Chocolate is itself... and a metaphor for much.

This book will take you as deep as you want to go and most likely futher than you thought possible

It's deep fun.

The author tells us, in a whispered and poetic voice, an intimate story of her search for love and chocolate across continents and years. On the way, we learn how love and chocolate conspire to fuel her odyssey. Bittersweet Journey's end reveals that, at least for Charlotte, you can go home again.

Thank you, thank you for the incredible experience of having a book, in its simplicity, tenderly assault one's senses in so many ways. I feel completely saturated, utterly spiritually fulfilled, and terribly well fed.

Because I buy every book with chocolate in the title (my search for the ultimate recipe), I accidentally read this wonderful little volume. The prose is sensitive and sensual, the photographs amazing, and the read an absolute joy. But I'm still searching for the ultimate chocolate recipe.

Literate and funny, rich as a truffle and light as a souflee. For those who have a hard time deciding between which you like better, sex or food -- now you don't have to.

In Bittersweet Journey, Ms. Futterman has created a stunning and original piece of work, which is part novel, part travel guide, part biography, part cookery book, part culinary art gallery, part obsession, but is all consuming. The writer tenderly and skillfully combines these ingredients into an addictive mixture, which, like her rich, moreish and somehow deliciously indulgent writing, perfectly reflects the nature of love, longing and, of course, chocolate.

Our central protagonist, Charlotte, winds her ways through the cafes and confectioners of European cities (bookended by Brooklyn), with only her passion for the sweet and her hope for a love with whom to share it. She is so carefully and sensuously drawn that one can almost taste the emotional highs and lows of her beautiful journey--Charlotte is both our heroine and our empty canvas, on which we play out our own story of obsession and hope.

Bittersweet Journey is, quite simply, a beautiful experience, which anyone with any interest in love, travel, dreams, or chocolate should immerse themselves in.

This book, like the best chocolate, is rich, complex, dark and voluptuous. And not only is it poetic - it's also informative, in the best way. It makes you want to find out more and shows you how. The photographs, by the author, match the refined sensuality of the language, and both words and pictures are as concentrated as the experience the author seeks to share with us. I'm afraid I left none for later, ingesting all at one sitting, afterwards becoming a furtive hunter for chocolate, snapping open foil packets by candle-light in the company of those I loved most, savouring every aspect of the ritual. Futterman's book opened up this world at a perfect moment; it has helped me to appreciate the wonderful organic chocolates now coming onto the market in the UK. I am discovering cocoa treats in London that I would not have sought out without this book - a refined treat which lingers in your mind long after you have tasted it.

Highly recommended for its cool piquancy. A tonic for the soul, a feast for the eyes, a whiff of mystery. BITTERSWEET JOURNEY leaves one decidedly satisfied.