Customer Reviews

Gourmet

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The Gourmet, translated by Alison Anderson, is unmistakably French in style. It's a very short story of the deathbed thoughts of god-like food critic Pierre Arthens as he tries to recall a particular taste that he wishes to experience again before he dies. He goes through several food groups, recalling flavours (beautifully described) and experiences - many from childhood - chapter by chapter, each one interspersed with thoughts on the great man's imminent death by those who know him (including some surprise views from statues and pets!). Although very short, it's perfectly judged as any longer would start to get tedious although several of the stories of those who know him are particularly nicely written and wet the appetite for more.

It's perhaps slightly unfortunate that we discover that the illusive taste that he is seeking is very unique to France - and therefore perhaps the international reader is less able to identify with this particular taste - a minor point, but one that was strangely annoying to me.

This particular edition also has some of those "book group" type questions at the end as well as a number of taster chapters for the author's bestselling The Elegance of the Hedgehog.

It's a quick read undoubtedly, but quite a literary one, in common with much of the French style. Ideal reading for the dedicated foodie (although its worth pointing out that food is used as a metaphor for much deeper meaning in this book) as well as lovers of stylish prose.

The Gourmet is the first novel by Muriel Barbery. Pierre Arthens, France's greatest food critic, is dying. As he lies on his deathbed in his Rue de Grenelle apartment, he is tormented by his inability to recall the most delicious food to pass his lips, long before he became a critic. The story is narrated by Arthens himself, as he recalls meals and times in his life in an effort to identify the elusive dish; the people and things in his life also recount their experiences and opinions of him. Barbery's own childhood in Morocco is in evidence, and the apartment building and the concierge make a further appearance in Barbery's next and very popular novel, "The Elegance of the Hedghog". I wondered how the musings of a dying man could make much of a novel, but this is a feast of words, a banquet of mouth-watering and evocative descriptions. Alison Anderson has done a first class job of translation. This is truly a treat to relish.

You don't have to be a gourmet to appreciate this short read. It is tasty on many levels. I especially liked the frankness all characters
exposed while looking at the dying, main character, whether he was a father,friend, husband or whatever. There's both humour and compassion in this one, thanks to a marvellous writer.

As the greatest food critic in the world lies on his deathbed, having been told by his physician that he only has 48 hours to live, he looks back on his life and reminisces about the food he has savoured since his childhood.

"I am going to die and there is a flavour that has been teasing my taste buds and my heart and I simply cannot recall it........I know that it is a flavour from childhood or adolescence, an original, marvellous dish that predates my vocation as a critic.........I search, and cannot find."



This is more or less the premise of the book as Pierre Arthens desperately wants to re-live the taste before he dies and the chapters alternate between him and his friends, family, workers and even a beggar who he passed every day for ten years ..... they all spill the beans on their feelings and thoughts about him.

We see that he was not an easy man to live with, he was a cantankerous, authoritarian old man who treated his three children with disdain, his daughter Anna recalls that 'we were like flies to him, unwanted flies that you brush away with a sweep of your hand so you needn't think about them any more'. Yet to his peers and admirers he was a god and was treated with reverence upon entering a restaurant and people hung on to his every word.

Pierre described many instances of his favourite meals, who prepared them (his grandmother was his first preferred cook) and where and when they were eaten, in what circumstances, all in meticulous detail.

I thought he was a strange mix, I both liked and disliked him, I was fascinated by his love of food but I was unnerved by the way he treated his family, and couldn't understand what his wife saw in him. Muriel Barbery's extraordinary descriptions of foods I found a little long-winded sometimes and I certainly enjoyed reading everyone else's chapters more than Pierre's.

An interesting book for foodie fans.