Taste

Reviews / Votes

Poet Dubrow (Wild Kingdom) considers the five basic tastes-sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami-in this amusing collection of essays. . . Dubrow's musings are at once sober and evocative, and she succeeds admirably in getting "around the ungainliness of words by finding metaphors for taste." These thoughtful meditations offer lots to savor. * Publishers Weekly * Captivating, engrossing, and thought-provoking essays. -- Chris Manno * Lone Star Literary Life * If 'tasting may begin with sight' (and what a synaesthetic provocation that is!) Dubrow goes on to show this strangely elusive sense manifesting in every form of perception-mind, body, and soul. She writes: 'We acquire tastes just as we acquire knowledge: with time and patience, a belief that the pursuit can lead to something delicious'-and something delicious describes this trove of riches perfectly. -- Lia Purpura, author of <i>All the Fierce Tethers</i> Jehanne Dubrow is an intellectual sensualist, a writer of sometimes lyrical, sometimes directly colloquial, and always critical sensibility, her mnemonic taste buds open to memory's compromised dishes, its condiments and aftertaste. While other food-memory books sometimes threaten an overindulgence of richness, in Taste, Dubrow's sharp wit and self-awareness serve as the perfect digestivo. -- David Lazar, author of <i>Celeste Holm Syndrome: On Character Actors from Hollywood's Golden Age</i> This is a book I wish I had written. In Taste, Dubrow's range of allusions, from visual arts to poetry, are movingly conveyed. It is to be sampled as a cornucopia of 'small bites.' A viaticum of sorts, and a damn good read. -- Albert Sonnenfeld, translator of <i>Food: A Culinary History</i> In the form of a very elegantly written essay, Dubrow argues that taste is the main form of access to the world and others. And also, and most importantly, to ourselves. A poetic homage to the power and mysteries of taste. -- Barbara Carnevali, author of <i>Social Appearances: A Philosophy of Display and Prestige</i> It is both learned and light, personal and general, experiential and analytical but mostly wears its wisdom lightly. It is an exemplar of the genre of sensuous and sensory writing. * The European Legacy *