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101st out of 268 books
—
285 voters
Gourmet Rhapsody
In the heart of Paris, in the posh building made famous in The Elegance of the Hedgehog, Pierre Athens, the greatest food critic in the world, is dying. Revered by some and reviled by many, Monsieur Arthens has been lording it over the world’s most esteemed chefs for years, passing judgment on their creations, deciding their fates with a stroke of his pen, destroying and b...more
Paperback, 160 pages
Published
August 25th 2009
by Europa Editions
(first published 2000)
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If you loved _The Elegance of the Hedgehog_, you may be able to tolerate this. If, however you found yourself skipping major sections of the pretentious, florid prose and navel-gazing, you won't find this much an improvement. Originally published in 2000, but re-released after the success of _Hedgehog_, _Gourmet Rhapsody_ focuses on another resident of the swanky rue de Grenelle apartment house, Pierre Arthens, the illustrious, arrogant food critic. Dying of heart disease, Arthens tortures his m...more
I know this is my pre-teen, Nancy-Drew-loving self that is saying this, but I will say it anyway: I hope Muriel Barbery writes a book about EVERY SINGLE PERSON at 17 Rue de Grenelle. I loved _The Elegance of the Hedgehog_, and was enchanted to find this new novel by Barbery. This one which concerns Pierre Arthens, who makes one supremely unpleasant visit to the heroine of _Hedgehog_ before dying and leaving his flat vacant. Let me say upfront: He is unpleasant in this one too. But this time we s...more
5 likes · like · see review
I loved Elegance of the Hedgehog, primarily because Barbery created two characters who, although deeply flawed and often annoying, were so obviously vulnerable and sad that one (I) couldn't help but feel deeply for them. That story unfolded as carefully and precisely as an origami swan, revealing deeper nuance of character with each alternating chapter, bringing two very isolated and lonely characters together (through plot, character and symbolically). It also took broad and very funny swipes a...more
9 likes · like · see review
"How ironic! After decades of grub, deluges of wine and alcohol of every sort, after a life spent in butter, cream, rich sauces, and oil in constant, knowingly orchestrated and meticulously cajoled excess, my trustiest right-hand men, Sir Liver and his associate Stomach, are doing marvelously well and it is my heart that is giving out. I am dying of cardiac insufficiency. What a bitter pill to swallow."
As soon as I read those words (which can be found on page two), I was hooked. Barbery, you la...more
As soon as I read those words (which can be found on page two), I was hooked. Barbery, you la...more
2 likes · like · see review
I was really hoping for the supporting characters of this book to become important or involved in some kind of twist, in some kind of big revelation.
As the blurb will tell you this is a book about a famous and powerful, but cold-hearted food critic dying. Meanwhile he is trying to remember one last vital taste that will tell him who he is before he dies. Every other chapter is him reminiscing about the food that he’s eaten throughout his life, often rustic food not served in gourmet restaurants...more
As the blurb will tell you this is a book about a famous and powerful, but cold-hearted food critic dying. Meanwhile he is trying to remember one last vital taste that will tell him who he is before he dies. Every other chapter is him reminiscing about the food that he’s eaten throughout his life, often rustic food not served in gourmet restaurants...more
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I really liked The Elegance of the Hedgehog, so perhaps I was expecting too much here. The French title translated more directly would be The Gourmand, and I don't know why the publishers didn't just use that, because it would have been more appropriate as the character of focus is a feared and arrogant food critic, now an old man on his death bed. What we have are a series of chapters of reminiscences by a dying gourmand, in search of that last sublime taste he covets, with each reminiscence ba...more
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This is just about as close to 4 stars as you can get without crossing the line. If you enjoyed The Elegance of the Hedgehog, you will likely enjoy this one too, but it really isn't nearly as good, so don't expect it to be.
Barbery uses a phrase in Gourmet Rhapsody that I think perfectly describes her style: a symphony of language. This is her debut novel, however, and I think we can easily see the orchestra is just practicing. She has a marvelous turn of phrase, and her insight is still good, b...more
Barbery uses a phrase in Gourmet Rhapsody that I think perfectly describes her style: a symphony of language. This is her debut novel, however, and I think we can easily see the orchestra is just practicing. She has a marvelous turn of phrase, and her insight is still good, b...more
2 likes · like · see review
Food has become a very controversial subject, many arguing that education levels, income, and race unfairly dictate the availability of fresh foods and vegetables in low-income American neighborhoods. Though Muriel Barbery (The Elegance of the Hedgehog) does not focus specifically on these issues in her recent novel Gourmet Rhapsody, the division between the working class and the wealthy as it pertains to food and quality of life is often glaringly apparent in the story.
The premise of the novel...more
The premise of the novel...more
I am the greatest food critic in the world. It is I who has taken this minor art and raised it to a rank of utmost prestige. Everyone knows my name, from Paris to Rio, Moscow to Brazaville, Saigon o Melbourne and Acapulco. I have made, and unmade, reputations, and at sumptuous banquets I have been the knowing and merciless maitre d'oeuvre, expediting to the four corners of the globe the salt or honey of my pen, to newspapers and broadcasts and various forums, where I have been repeatedly invite...more
Critics found Gourmet Rhapsody less enjoyable than Barbery's Hedgehog, which features a charming 12-year-old protagonist and an emotionally compelling story line. Arthens, who brings to mind the dour, condescending food critic Anton Ego in Pixar's animated gastro-flick Ratatouille, is far less appealing. Only Salon thought that the weaknesses of Hedgehog -- including its literary and philosophical pretensions -- were strengths in Gourmet Rhapsody. Despite the comparison, most critics thought Rha...more
I hoped for better, having just read Elegance of the Hedgehog. I was charmed by a few of the vignettes of foods, but I can't say the personal reflections inbetween did anything but drive the story to a new understanding of the critic's personality clashing or complementing each food.
As for the final taste... it is possible, having never eaten the food, I am really missing something here, but I was unimpressed with the resolution - and not just as a food, but as a cathartic device. I had a moment...more
As for the final taste... it is possible, having never eaten the food, I am really missing something here, but I was unimpressed with the resolution - and not just as a food, but as a cathartic device. I had a moment...more
I loved "The elegance of Hedgehog"; I even read somewhere that the book had been prescribed for some patients of psychoanalysis instead of medication. I can not compare the two books ("Rhapsody" was the first one published by Barbery), they are completely different. This book is a poem, a song dedicated to food. It is a hymn of odaration for the delights and pleasures of eating. The story makes you dismiss any concept of diets and enjoy the butter, cream and rich cakes, to crave fresh bread and...more
While I didn't devour Gourmet Rhapsody as deeply as I did The Elegance of the Hedgehog, I still found it moving. It is true that it is full of food (the love of it, the search for that one taste that the unlovable food critic Pierre Arthen longs for on his deathbed) but Barbery's beauty is in the characters. Each character that speaks of Pierre and their hatred, fear or admiration of the man holds such conflicted emotions that Barbery writes of so well. Barbery's sentences always move me and mak...more
May 09, 2013
Claire
added it
What would you do if you knew you only had 48 hours left to live?
This is what faces Pierre Arthens in ‘The Gourmet.’ Rather than spending precious final hours with loved ones, Pierre Arthens is plagued by a yearning for a forgotten flavour – his life as a world-renowned food critic almost blurring the identity of this craving.
Monsieur Arthens’s quest to find the mystery flavour takes the reader through time and place, revealing the main character of this book to be hardly likeable, arrogant, a...more
This is what faces Pierre Arthens in ‘The Gourmet.’ Rather than spending precious final hours with loved ones, Pierre Arthens is plagued by a yearning for a forgotten flavour – his life as a world-renowned food critic almost blurring the identity of this craving.
Monsieur Arthens’s quest to find the mystery flavour takes the reader through time and place, revealing the main character of this book to be hardly likeable, arrogant, a...more
It would take a reader with strong willpower to get to the end of The Gourmet by Muriel Barbery without drooling. The book really should come with one of those Government- style warnings on the front: Read only when you’re not hungry.
It could be Barbery’s description of the sweet yet sharp smoky flavour of grilled sardines or her evocation of sashimi whose texture is “velvet dust, verging on silk” that gets you salivating. Perhaps however your tastes run more to:
"Pan roasted breast of Peking duc...more
It could be Barbery’s description of the sweet yet sharp smoky flavour of grilled sardines or her evocation of sashimi whose texture is “velvet dust, verging on silk” that gets you salivating. Perhaps however your tastes run more to:
"Pan roasted breast of Peking duc...more
Food For Thought….Gourmet Rhapsody was a good read.
A dying man tries to figure out what that one last taste is that he needs, and forgets about the rest. I hope he never has to eat his words.
I found the main character, Pierre Arthens, a real arrogant snob, however, that is what makes him one of the best food critics in the world. He knows good food and he demands it.
While I found many parts of this story overwritten and wordy, it did encourage me to stop and appreciate what I am putting in my...more
A dying man tries to figure out what that one last taste is that he needs, and forgets about the rest. I hope he never has to eat his words.
I found the main character, Pierre Arthens, a real arrogant snob, however, that is what makes him one of the best food critics in the world. He knows good food and he demands it.
While I found many parts of this story overwritten and wordy, it did encourage me to stop and appreciate what I am putting in my...more
What I really enjoyed about this book - besides the interesting, lyrical and charmingly overwrought descriptions of food - was the sense of watching Muriel Barbury find her literary feet. She lands in this simple narrative on solid ground.
Like most English language readers, I read Hedgehog first and sort of fell in love with it. Why, I'll leave for my hedgehog review, but Rhapsody was exactly what I expected - a competent and lovingly written novella about a horrible man with no redeeming qualit...more
Like most English language readers, I read Hedgehog first and sort of fell in love with it. Why, I'll leave for my hedgehog review, but Rhapsody was exactly what I expected - a competent and lovingly written novella about a horrible man with no redeeming qualit...more
Sep 13, 2012
La Stamberga dei Lettori
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
pythia
Precedente di sei anni il più noto "L'eleganza del riccio" e ambientato nello stesso palazzo parigino, questo "Estasi culinarie" è stato ripubblicato in Italia con questo titolo dopo il successo del bestseller. Le differenze tra le due opere sono marcate, tanto che questo potrebbe deludere chi ha amato "Il riccio": manca sicuramente la drammaticità delle vicende, come anche sono assenti le interazioni profonde tra i vari personaggi. Eppure "Estasi culinarie" non mi è affatto dispiaciuto, pur nel...more
Che libro strano questo "Estasi culinarie"!
Il romanzo racconta di un importante chef nonché critico gastronomico francese che sta per morire e che, prima del trapasso, vuole assolutamente ricordare quel sapore, il sapore che lo aveva incantato una volta nella vita e che è andato perduto.
Alternate alla sua voce narrante ci sono quelle della moglie devota e bistrattata, tradita ma sempre più innamorata che non ha mai lasciato il marito e che ha riversato il suo amore sui figli; quelle dei figli ch...more
Il romanzo racconta di un importante chef nonché critico gastronomico francese che sta per morire e che, prima del trapasso, vuole assolutamente ricordare quel sapore, il sapore che lo aveva incantato una volta nella vita e che è andato perduto.
Alternate alla sua voce narrante ci sono quelle della moglie devota e bistrattata, tradita ma sempre più innamorata che non ha mai lasciato il marito e che ha riversato il suo amore sui figli; quelle dei figli ch...more
I very much enjoyed The Elegance of the Hedgehog but Gourmet Rhapsody, Barbery’s first novel, was disappointing. It’s more focused on a single character, the gourmet of the title, who gets half of the short first person chapters of the book. The other half of the chapters that alternate with the gourmet’s are ostensibly by others in his life, family, friends, and least successfully a statue and his cat. The gourmet is dying and the premise of his chapters is an attempt to recall his Rosebud of a...more
Si tratta di un'altra opera filosofeggiante di Muriel Barbery, questa volta con tema principale la gastronomia. L'autrice non si fa mancare uno stile piuttosto sofisticato, dilettandosi a descrivere le decine di sapori che il famosissimo critico gastronomico Arthens ripercorre mentalmente nelle ultime ore delle sua vita. Dalle pietanze della nonna a quelle più arzigogolate della cucina francese, o la raffinatezza di quella giapponese, ogni parola è atta a regalarci la stessa sensazione che tale...more
"Rapsodia Gourmet", publicada anteriormente en nuestro país con el título "Una golosina" por la Editorial Zendrera Zariquiey, es la primera obra de Muriel Barbery, autora que ha alcanzado el éxito con La elegancia del erizo.
Es una lectura de prosa exquisita y deliciosa, con palabras que evocan sensaciones y olores de una forma magistral, y unos pasajes que son dignos de leer una segunda vez por la asombrosa habilidad de la autora para hacer magia con las palabras. Tras el asombro inicial, y ver...more
Es una lectura de prosa exquisita y deliciosa, con palabras que evocan sensaciones y olores de una forma magistral, y unos pasajes que son dignos de leer una segunda vez por la asombrosa habilidad de la autora para hacer magia con las palabras. Tras el asombro inicial, y ver...more
It's always interesting to read a book where the main protagonist isn't especially likable. Gourmet Rhapsody is the slim story of a famous food critic in his last two days of life. Lying on his deathbed, he tries to recall the one particular flavor he wants to taste again before he's gone forever. The chapters alternate between his recollections of the various and best things he's tasted throughout his life and the observations of the people whose lives he's touched - from the maid to his wife a...more
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Yet again, Barbery has broken my heart with an amazingly sweet, simple story about people being people... in particular, food critic Pierre Arthens whose life has been lived describing and critiquing the so called 'finer things in life,' and has forgotten the simple joys of youth and true pleasure. I love that his family and acquaintances spend the book complaining about this man's inability to connect to them, while he spends his narration connecting to mayonnaise and whiskey!
Mar 22, 2013
Jill Jones
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
literature majors interested form and structure, and narrative perspective.
Shelves:
fiction,
food-in-literature
The reason I bought and read this book is because I have an intense interest in food in literature.
I found the main character wholly unlikeable, and unrelatable for me ... he doesn't love his own children. And his wife would choose her husband over her children. This is a family dynamic that doesn't make any sense to me. And so, I found myself feeling angry while reading it at times.
But having said all that, the structure of the story is fascinating. The narrative perspective changes in interest...more
I found the main character wholly unlikeable, and unrelatable for me ... he doesn't love his own children. And his wife would choose her husband over her children. This is a family dynamic that doesn't make any sense to me. And so, I found myself feeling angry while reading it at times.
But having said all that, the structure of the story is fascinating. The narrative perspective changes in interest...more
Read my full review here: http://booksaremyfavouriteandbest.wor...
My first question is ‘Why isn’t Muriel Barbery herself a food critic?’ – her descriptions of food in The Gourmet are exquisite.
As the world’s most celebrated food critic, Pierre Arthens, lays dying in his plush Parisian apartment (the same apartment building of The Elegance of the Hedgehog fame), his mind turns to key culinary moments in his past. Having eaten at the finest restaurants and drunk the best wines, Pierre is desperate...more
My first question is ‘Why isn’t Muriel Barbery herself a food critic?’ – her descriptions of food in The Gourmet are exquisite.
As the world’s most celebrated food critic, Pierre Arthens, lays dying in his plush Parisian apartment (the same apartment building of The Elegance of the Hedgehog fame), his mind turns to key culinary moments in his past. Having eaten at the finest restaurants and drunk the best wines, Pierre is desperate...more
I picked this book up at a Barnes and Nobles about 4 years ago, still feeling the exhilaration of reading Barbery's The Elegance of the Hedgehog. I read about thirty pages and stowed it away on the bookshelf disappointed that,despite having the same setting, it was not a direct descendant of the author's first novel. Where were the characters like wise beyond her years Paloma and clandestine philosopher Renee? Eventually, the guilt of leaving Barbery neglected and gathering dust became too much...more
Post Listen Review: When you have a book where sorbet is supposed to be orgasmic, toast is capable of giving you an inexpressible sense of well-being and mayonaise is compared to having sex, you know you have a lousy, pretentious book where all the characters think way too much of themselves. I think there has been a trend in literary circles lately where if you write a book that talks about the "sensual nature of food" then critics are happy to jump on the bandwagon and proclaim those books tru...more
quello digestivo e' l'unico commento che mi sento di fare dopo pagine su pagine farcite di escursus culinari propinateci dal futuro (grazie al cielo) trapassato guru culinario.Il bicarbonato temo non sara' sufficiente per rimuovere l'inutilita' profonda di un libro del genere che se lo avessi letto prima de "L'eleganza Del Riccio" mi avrebbe fatto segnare come una maledizione la comparsa di futuri libri dell'autrice.
L'abbozzo qui presentato del condominio di rue grenelle e' trascurabile tranne c...more
L'abbozzo qui presentato del condominio di rue grenelle e' trascurabile tranne c...more
I enjoyed this book, its descriptions of food and flavors, but I felt that it lacked real characters. Hedgehog had real characters, some likable, others not so much. In Gourmet Rhapsody there are outlines or hints of characters. There are strong expressions of emotion but they didn't seem to connect. I believe that this was Barbery's first novel and in it you can easily see her potential as a novelist.
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| La Stamberga dei ...: Estasi culinarie di Muriel Barbery | 1 | 3 | Sep 16, 2012 09:57am |
Muriel Barbery is a French novelist and professor of philosophy. Barbery entered the École Normale Supérieure de Fontenay-Saint-Cloud in 1990 and obtained her agrégation in philosophy in 1993. She then taught philosophy at the Université de Bourgogne, in a lycée, and at the Saint-Lô IUFM.
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La timide et très discrète Muriel Barbery ne s’imaginait sans doute pas faire l’objet de l’engouement qu...more
More about Muriel Barbery...
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La timide et très discrète Muriel Barbery ne s’imaginait sans doute pas faire l’objet de l’engouement qu...more
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“I am going to die, but that is of no importance.”
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7 people liked it
“Words: repositories for singular realities which they then transform into memories in an anthology, magicians that change the face of reality by adorning it with the right to become memorable, to be placed in a library of memories.”
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5 people liked it
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Jun 28, 2010 10:29am
Dec 12, 2011 05:57am