Shakespeare's Kitchen: Stories [Paperback]

Lore Segal (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2008

The highly praised new book that delivers a "hefty emotional wallop" (Chicago Tribune) from the acclaimed author of Other People's Houses and Her First American.

Shakespeare's Kitchen, Lore Segal's first major work of fiction in more than twenty years, was widely celebrated upon its publication in hardcover. Serialized in The New Yorker and excerpted in the 2008 O. Henry Prize Stories collection, it was also a Book Sense Pick, a Pick of the Week in both Entertainment Weekly and People magazine, and a Summer Reading Pick in Oprah's O Magazine.

In these "wry, finely honed, interlocking stories" (Atlantic Monthly), Segal offers a brilliant and nuanced portrayal of the lives of a close-knit group of friends and colleagues in a fictional college town in Connecticut. Told through a series of unforgettable dinner parties, afternoon picnics, and Sunday brunches, "the cumulative power of Shakespeare's Kitchen lies in Segal's dazzling ability to merge the mundane details of life with the arc of human emotion" (Washington Post Book World). It's a deeply moving work that marks the triumphant return of a writer at the height of her powers.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. What began as seven interrelated short stories published in The New Yorker (including the O'Henry Prize-winning "The Reverse Bug") is now a full-length collection of thirteen?the first major work of fiction in 20 years from the acclaimed author of Her First American. Filled with all the pomp and depressed glory of a modern-day Great Gatsby, each installment delivers an entertaining glimpse into the dysfunctional lives of a group of hoity-toity Connecticut think tank intellectuals as they philosophize over wine and cheese, fall in and out of love and go about their daily lives with reckless abandon. Most of the action takes place (or is retold, properly discussed and drunkenly digested) in the kitchen of the institute's director, Leslie Shakespeare, while Leslie's wife alternatively entertains and lambastes their friends. Although the plot centers on nothing more than everyday comings and goings, Segal gives readers a peek into the sausage factory of daily routine, in which humdrum-but-necessary minutia belie the intrigue and angst stirred up in her self-absorbed characters' internal monologues. When stacked together, these vignettes are hilarious and telling. Segal exhibits a rare insight into the human character that is at once humbling and shamelessly enjoyable to behold.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

Most claims that the stories of a collection are "interrelated" seem intended to sway short story-phobic readers into thinking that they're getting a novel; most such claims are false. Segal's latest, however, her first major work of fiction since Her First American (1985), delivers such a continuum that one wonders how well some of these stories work out of sequence, even despite their New Yorker pedigree. The story treats Ilka Weisz, who accepts a position at a think tank called the Concordance Institute, and her struggle to form a new family out of friends and coworkers (in particular the director, Leslie Shakespeare, and his wife, Eliza). Her entry into the claustrophobic academic setting, combined with Segal's wonderfully funny power washing of conversational dynamics, is a perfect way to explore the roles we play and the truths and lies we tell ourselves about ourselves. Yes, at some level it's a comedy of manners set in academia, but given the light touch with which Segal shares her immense powers of observation--and the darker presence of death, which reminds us that cocktail hour must someday end--that's entirely forgivable. Brad Hooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 225 pages
• Publisher: New Press, The (April 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1595583467
• ISBN-13: 978-1595583468
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #846,462 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Lore Segal is the author of the Pulitzer nominated Shakespeare's Kitchen, as well as the recently re-issued novels Lucinella, Other People's Houses, and Her First American. She is the recipient of the American Academy and the Institutes of Arts and Letters Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the Harold U. Ribalow Prize. She contributes to The New Yorker, the New York Times Book Review, The New Republic and other publications. She lives in New York City.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An emotional saga of interpersonal relationships as a barometer of the human condition., October 6, 2007

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Shakespeare's Kitchen: Stories (Hardcover)

Shakespeare's Kitchen is an anthology of thirteen interconnected short stories, seven of which have previously appeared in "The New Yorker", about the yearning for friendship and the development - and loss - of closeness. Author and award-winner Lore Segal reveals the world of Ilka Weisz, who has accepted a junior position at a Connecticut think tank at the cost of departing her beloved circle of New York friends. As she comes to know her new acquaintances through a series of memorable dinner parties, afternoon picnics, and Sunday brunches, she experiences the outsider's loneliness among people as well the delight of cultivating familiar companionship, the wonderment of love, and the shock or even bizarre behavior in the wake of losing a fellow human being to death. An emotional saga of interpersonal relationships as a barometer of the human condition.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Wish I Liked It More., September 8, 2008

By 

Brett Benner (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Shakespeare's Kitchen: Stories (Paperback)

I feel like I missed the boat. When I started this book I was charmed by the witty writing, and astute observations Segal presents about relationships and how we move through life. That said, something happened halfway through and I found myself nearly numb with apathy. Frankly, I struggled to finish. Clearly I'm in the minority, and I have absolutely no quips with the author's gift for writing. I just found myself reading about cold snobby intellectuals feeling, well, cold.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good writing, tiresome characters, May 30, 2007

By 

J. Rosenberg "reggieroy" (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Shakespeare's Kitchen: Stories (Hardcover)

I bought this book because a reviewer for the New York Times loved it, and because I enjoyed the writer's other books. The writing was very good and some of the insights impressive. I enjoyed the main character and would have liked to learn even more about her, but I grew tired of the background characters. They were always the same, no matter what was going on around them. One, Eliza, was especially tiresome and meanspirited. Yes, a tragedy had happened to her, but I never figured out how it had affected her beyond the barest details.