We look at the recently published collection of writings by Anthony Bourdain. See more about the book here.
The Anthony Bourdain Reader, reviewed
We are fans of Anthony Bourdain, partly due to a lock down project of watching, in no particular order, his complete TV seasons on Netflix, as well as some other shows he created elsewhere. His humanity and empathy comes through, again and again across these shows. We also, like many others we imagine, became aware of him via his Kitchen Confidential memoir first and foremost.
Overall the reader mostly works, but, if you came in via having read Kitchen Confidential, and, or some of his other books, you may well feel justified in wondering why some of the excerpts from those books are quite so long. Mostly the reader is well curated, and to balance these over long chunks of too familiar content, the editors have done a good job of trawling the archives to add rarer grooves. Towards the end of the book there are the initial chapters from an unfinished book he wrote. Initially these seemed like a bit of a red herring, why get invested in something that you know won’t be resolved. Funnily enough though, after awhile we found ourselves getting into it, and then feeling disappointment that it is an unfinished fragment.
This is of course perhaps a more than apt metaphor for someone who left us at the tender age of 61. Bourdain cared, was passionate and not willing to accept BS from fake or insincere people. As introduction highlights, Bourdain was someone who could bond with and emphasize with the poor and downtrodden around the world. Sure the programs were ostensibly about food, but really they were about humanity, and what it means to remain human and able to give and receive kindness. He was naturally indignant about what his own country had done to Vietnam and Laos, and then everywhere and anywhere else he visited.
While some sections of the reader work less well than others, they do help to build up and capture a sense of the author, which is what he always wanted to be. The excerpts will only inspire you to chase down those books that you haven’t read before, but there is also unique, original content here, which ensures this book has value and is not a mere retread. Well worth reading or putting into someone’s Christmas stocking.
More about the book
The definitive, career-spanning collection of writing from Anthony Bourdain, including unpublished and never-before-seen material, with an Introduction by Patrick Radden Keefe.
Anthony Bourdain represented many things to many people – and he had many sides. But no part of his identity was more important to him than that of a writer; it was one of the central ways he saw himself. Revealing Anthony Bourdain’s observant, curious and hungry mind, The Anthony Bourdain Reader is a collection of Bourdain’s best writing and touches on his many pursuits and passions, from restaurant life to family life to the ‘low life’, from TV to travel through places like Vietnam, Buenos Aires, Paris and Shanghai.
With pointed opinions on the specific use of brioche buns, the devastation of Western foreign policy and the pain and pleasure of hot pot, this new collection encapsulates the unique brilliance of a once-in-a-generation mind and one of our most distinctive writers. After Bourdain’s years of travelling the globe in search of the very best of cuisine and culture, The Anthony Bourdain Reader is a testament to the enduring and singular voice he crafted, with eclectic and curated chapters, including visceral graphic novel excerpts, some of his most well-loved recipes and never-before-published pieces.
Edited by Bourdain’s long-time agent and friend Kimberly Witherspoon, and with a new Foreword by Patrick Radden Keefe, this is an essential reader for any Bourdain fan as well as a vivid and moving recollection of his life and legacy.
See more book reviews here.
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