Kafka's Soup: A Complete History of World Literature in 14 Recipes [Hardcover]

Mark Crick (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 6, 2006

I needed a table at Maxim’s, a hundred bucks, and a gorgeous blonde; what I had was a leg of lamb and no clues. I took hold of the joint. It felt cold and damp, like a coroner’s handshake. I took out a knife and cut the lamb into pieces. Feeling the blade in my hand I sliced an onion, and before I knew what I was doing a carrot lay in pieces on the slab. None of them moved.
—from “LAMB WITH DILL SAUCE
À LA RAYMOND CHANDLER”

If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to make dinner with Franz Kafka, Jane Austen, or Raymond Chandler, this is the chance to find out. 

 

Literary ventriloquist Mark Crick presents fourteen recipes in the voices of famous writers, from Homer to Virginia Woolf to Irvine Welsh.

 Guaranteed to delight anyone in love with food and books, these witty pastiches will keep you so entertained in the kitchen that you’ll be sorry when the guests arrive.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

London-based photographer Crick's whimsical book consists of pastiches of famous writers having culinary adventures. John Steinbeck's Depression-era risotto is a parched affair: "The porcini lay dry and wrinkled, each slice twisted by thirst." The Marquis de Sade's heroine Justine offers a through-the-keyhole account of her captor's preparation of Boned, Stuffed Poussins: "I had no idea that a small bird could take so much stuffing, but he carried on, using language that my ears could barely suffer, until the poor bird could take no more." Crick easily evokes the serene wisdom of Jane Austen, in a recipe for Tarragon Eggs: "It is a truth universally acknowledged that eggs, kept for too long, go off." From Raymond Chandler's edgy account of cooking lamb to Gabriel García Márquez's epic Coq au Vin, from Harold Pinter's one-act Cheese on Toast to Chaucer's versified instructions for Onion Tart, Crick ranges easily throughout world literature, perfectly capturing the voice of each writer. Not content with this capricious achievement, Crick supplies his own color illustrations, likewise works of pastiche, gently mocking, among others, Andy Warhol, William Hogarth, Jean Cocteau, Vincent van Gogh and Henry Moore. This is a delight for literary foodies. (Nov.)
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Review

PRAISE FOR KAFKA'S SOUP

 

"Unpalatable."--Franz Kafka
 
"Stuck in my throat."--Raymond Chandler
 
"Long-winded."--Marcel Proust
 
"He'll rot in hell."--Graham Greene

"Brief and witty and also useful: pastiche with a purpose … Mr. Crick is evidently a man of many talents: his recipes are both plausible and appetizing; his literary impersonations are all cleverly executed and, in patches, brilliant; and the illustrations (also by Mr. Crick) are playful pastiche, too."

(The New York Observer )

"In this lovingly executed little volume of literary parodies, Mr. Crick mines his early obsessions with food and fiction … a small but sparkling marriage of the tasteful and the tasty."

(The Wall Street Journal )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 96 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; 1 edition (November 6, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0151012830
• ISBN-13: 978-0151012831
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #564,943 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "A kitchen, cluttered. A fluorescent tube is flickering, trying to light.", November 26, 2006

By 

Luan Gaines "luansos" (Dana Point, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Kafka's Soup: A Complete History of World Literature in 14 Recipes (Hardcover)

In a great leap of imagination, Crick, described as a literary ventriloquist, has concocted a wonderful pastiche of recipes penned in the language of each author, for example, Kafka's "Quick Miso Soup". Like Kafka, the soup is thin, but exotic; one pictures the author too busy to cook, or eat, his energies better spent on his work. The recipes are diverse: Lamb with Dill Sauce a La Raymond Chandler; Tarragon Eggs a la Jane Austen; Tiramisu a la Marcel Proust; Cheese on Toast a la Harold Pinter; and Onion Tart a la Geoffrey Chaucer. Somehow Crick manages to imbue each recipe with the distinctive flavor of the writer, those peculiarities of language so uniquely mastered by literary favorites. He carefully assembles each pastiche, marrying flavor and degree of difference with author, adding a pinch of tart or sweet as required for authenticity.

In his legendary Lamb with Dill Sauce, Chandler "sipped on my whiskey sour, ground out my cigarette on the chopping board... I needed a table at Maxim's... what I had was a leg of lamb and no clues." In preparation for her Tarragon Eggs, Jane Austen believes "That the arrival of a newcomer in the parish presented the perfect opportunity and Mrs. B-- wasted no time in sending out invitations to a luncheon." Proust's Tiramisu is reflective, charged with meaning: "the memories of smell and taste, so faithful, resisted the destruction and rebuilt for a moment the palace wherein dwelt the remembrance of that evening and that tiramisu." Gabriel Garcia Marquez (in the person of Father Antonio del Sacrament de Altar Castaneda) prepares Coq au Vin for a condemned prisoner, Fidel Agosto Santiago: "Santiago would eat his last supper the following night, and since the condemned man refused to accept food from his wife, the priest had taken on the responsibility."

A photographer by trade, Crick created the artwork for each recipe, equally precise in tone and detail, from the stark illustration of Steinbeck's Mushroom Risotto to the simplicity of Homer's Fenkata. Harold Pinter's Cheese on Toast is in stark black and white relief, while Austen's Tarragon Eggs features an elegant drawing of a fashionable lady and gentleman. These fourteen recipes are more than just an exercise in literary imagination; this flavorful volume is a gem. Luan Gaines/2006.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Witty, funny, and tastes good too., December 15, 2006

By 

Skye (Marblehead, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Kafka's Soup: A Complete History of World Literature in 14 Recipes (Hardcover)

It isn't often you read a book that is so orginal. Including recipes in a book has become commonplace -- but not like this. I suspect most book lovers also enjoy good food. And here's a great combination...real recipes incorporated into the language of real authors in their own style. Would be fun to have a dinenr party composed of the dishes described and read Crick's recipe before each course. Yummm. Something good for the mind and for the stomach.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Blackjacks and Literary Cuisine, February 20, 2007

By 

Dee Churchill (Coastal Oregon, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Kafka's Soup: A Complete History of World Literature in 14 Recipes (Hardcover)

Crick has produced a small but rich volume that pays homage to writers from Homer to Raymond Chandler and if there is a false note struck anywhere, I cannot detect it. As an added bonus, the recipes look to be perfectly wonderful all by themselves.

Crick begins with the hilarious Chandler shtick centered on Lamb with Dill Sauce. "It was time to deal with the butter and flour so I mixed them together into a paste and added it to the stock. There wasn't a whisk, so using my blackjack I beat out any lumps until the paste was smooth." Almost makes me sorry I come equipped with three different whisks and not a blackjack in sight.

Speaking in the articulate phrasing of the Marquis de Sade, Crick manages to make fun of politically correct cuisine with its "naive trust in low-fat yogurt" and celebrate the sensuality of food with a story about an innocent maiden forced to observe a hypocritical judge as he lecherously prepares Boned Stuffed Poussins. Makes you quiver, it does.

The Harold Pinter playlet titled "Cheese on Toast" features ciabatta and eggplant and mozzarella and, I swear it, you can taste the results before you've finished reading. My tummy growls in frustration for I have none of the aforementioned ingredients on hand.

So far, my favorite is the gem in the voice of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, titled "Coq au Vin." There is a priest tormented by mosquitos and a mulatta cook who prepares a last meal for a murderer, Fidel Agosto Santiago, and the meal is the tough carcass of the fabled fighting cock, El Jaguaracito, donated by its owner, the Syrian. It's all there -- drama, rich characterization and food so wonderful it will make you weep.

I love to read and I love to cook. It's hard to imagine a single book that combines those two pleasures more perfectly than this one does. This book will hold a place of pride and joy in my cookbook collection. Now -- I wonder if I can find a blackjack on eBay?