Customer Reviews

The Book of Absinthe: A Cultural History

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you are interested in reading about the cultural and artistic history of the Green Fairy this book should be on your shelf right next to Barnaby Conrad's book. Baker has a fine sense of humor and narrative that fills the book with a memory of fin-de-siecle style decadence. Do yourself a favor, skip the Adams text, grab both this and Conrad and pour yourself a measure of liquid delight. You won't be sorry.

What I like about this book is Baker's approach and all the information he gives the reader. I really enjoyed reading this book, and do, in fact, now know very much about absinthe. Baker covers: how it came about, how it influenced artists and thinkers, to how it became vilified. There are some great anictdotes about artist such as Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and their drinking habits that were laugh out loud funny.

I did not give the book 5 stars because it is so historical and filled with information that the book does sag a bit at points. But that does not take away terribly from the overall enjoyment I had reading it.

Baker has written a devilishly dark and entertaining account of that Wormwood-based drink which has recently come out of almost a century of obscurity.

Science and biography are mixed in perfect proportions to make an informative and engaging read that, though somewhat limited in scope, is still refreshing at every page.

Phil Baker's hilarious reviews of various brands of absinthe, at the end of the text, are worth the price of the book all on their own. The book gives an engaging overview of the history of "La Fee Verte." I thought it was a good read, and I will now be able to hold up my end of the conversation the next time the topic of absinthe comes up. Paul Verlaine, Arthur Rimbaud, Charles Baudelaire, Oscar Wilde, Ernest Dowson, Aleister Crowley, Arthur Machen, August Strindberg, Alfred Jarry, Vincent van Gogh, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Alphonse Allais, Ernest Hemingway, and Pablo Picasso are all said to have fallen into the bitter embrace of "The Green Fairy." Interesting drink drunk by interesting people.

It's like a PhD candidate's dissertation was written on absinthe. Too dense, boring and rambling for a book on absinthe. There are much better absinthe histories out there that provide the same information with out all the pretension.