*** Matthew Amster-Burton – Hungry Monkey
***** David Foster Wallace – Infinite Jest
All I really read in July was Infinite Jest (Hungry Monkey was mostly June). Half-written blog posts about it abound. But I’ve been pacing myself and am still working on it.
Hungry Monkey is subtitled “a food-loving father’s quest to raise an adventurous eater” which pretty much sums it up. It’s funny in places, the daughter, Iris, is certainly cute, and some of the recipes and food tips sound pretty good. But the book is, by the end, insufferably twee, and it’s not very well written. M.A-B. is going for a sort of jokey informality which often comes off forced. And, of course, much of the book is undermined by the fact that Iris is, like most kids, not, in fact, an adventurous eater. The last couple of chapters involve M.A-B. making lobster and then sushi, neither of which Iris actually eats. So what we get is some stories about him making food interspersed with cute things Iris said. MFK Fisher meets Dr. Spock this is not. Still, the book’s mode of thinking is helpful for parents who want to share cooking with their kids. We will probably try some of M.A-B.’s tips and recipes with Nora.