March 3, 2014
Former New York Times restaurant critic and Gourmet editor Reichl’s (Tender at the Bone) first foray into fiction is like an iced white cake. It follows a traditional recipe, it is really sweet, and it is dull. A young California woman named Billie Breslin (a barely disguised Reichl) lands a job at a food magazine called Delicious! in New York City just before it is shuttered by budget-minded bigwigs. As part of an interim position fielding calls and correspondence from subscribers, Billie stays on as the lone employee in the old mansion from which the magazine was published for years. A stock character named Sammy, the fey former travel editor for the mag, leads her to a beautiful library on an upstairs floor, where they uncover letters written to the famous James Beard from a girl named Lulu during the Second World War—letters that have been hidden in a secret chamber by a long-gone librarian named Bertie. Billie embarks upon a scavenger hunt for the remaining the letters, and, in the end, on a journey to find their aging author. In order to get in as much foodie language as possible, Reichl has Billie working at a deli in Little Italy on the weekends, where she meets Mr. Complainer, her love interest. Though Reichl is a marvelous food writer, the language used here is often cloying.
April 1, 2014
Tragedy, war, fairy-tale makeover, trauma resolution, romance and--of course--food are just some of the ingredients in dining critic and celebrated memoirist Reichl's (Garlic and Sapphires, 2005, etc.) first novel, a bittersweet pudding with some lumps in the batter. Food metaphors irresistibly suggest themselves when considering this author's flavor-driven debut, set in the New York offices of Delicious!, a magazine not unlike Gourmet, where Reichl was editor in chief. At the fictional magazine, Billie Breslin, 21 and gifted with a prodigious palate, gets a job as editor's assistant and encounters a kindly cast of foodies, including travel editor Sammy and cheese shop owner Sal. Billie writes emails to her older, prettier, more popular sister, Genie, with whom, implausibly, she set up a successful cake-baking business in California when they were 10 and 11. But Billie's mysterious past is merely one strand of Reichl's tenderly written yet overstuffed story, which shifts focus after the magazine is suddenly closed down. A cache of wartime letters from a child named Lulu to famous chef James Beard, which Billie unearths in a hidden room behind the magazine's library, is used to pull in some odd, heavyweight issues, including World War II injustices against Italian-Americans and the Underground Railroad. Meanwhile, Sammy has encouraged Billie to open up about the secrets of her past, after which it's time for contact lenses, a cool haircut and a new wardrobe, converting the ugly duckling into a kooky swan. This helps Billie's attraction to Mr. Complainer--one of Sal's picky customers and a top-rated architectural historian--take wing. An argument and the search for Lulu prolong the story, but Reichl manages to bring matters comfortingly to rest with a kitchen epiphany and a recipe. Reichl's first fictional outing is something of a curate's egg--good in parts.
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February 15, 2014
When Billie Breslin abandons college to work as assistant to the editor of Delicious! magazine, she's immediately known for her superhuman palate: she can taste any dish and list its ingredients and suggest the flavors it needs. She's known for another trait, too: Billie does not cook. When Delicious! is unceremoniously folded by its parent publisher, Billie is the sole employee kept on to honor the magazine's guarantee: Your money back if the recipe doesn't work. Between phone calls from wacky subscribers, alone in the yawning old mansion headquarters, Billie discovers a hidden room and a cache of quirkily cataloged letters from a young girl to Delicious! writer James Beard during WWII. In the search for each letter and the young letter writer herself, Billie finds a purpose and a heroine, and gathers the courage to face the past she's running from. There is indeed a secret readers may quickly guess behind Billie's fear of the kitchen, but Reichl fills her plump novel with plentyrich characterization, a bright New York setting, transcendent discussions of taste and foodto distract from predictability. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Famed food critic Reichl, the author of the best-selling memoirs Tender at the Bone (1998) and Comfort Me with Apples (2011), turns to fiction, and her debut will receive a robust marketing campaign, including specialized targeting of librarians and foodies.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)
January 1, 2014
Reichl, the former editor of Gourmet magazine and best-selling author of culinary memoirs (Tender at the Bone; Comfort Me with Apples), makes her fiction debut with a story set at an iconic food magazine in New York called Delicious. Billie Breslin has recently been hired as an assistant and soon is writing for the magazine, too, but her exciting new job comes to a halt when the magazine is abruptly shut down. Billie, however, is asked to stay on to handle calls for the "Delicious Guarantee," which promises money back if a recipe doesn't work. A guarantee question leads Billie to the magazine's locked library, where she stumbles upon letters written during World War II from a young girl named Lulu Swan to chef James Beard. Billie follows card catalog clues to find the remaining letters and goes to Ohio to look for Lulu. Her journey finally helps Billie see the truth about her own family and gives her the courage to realize her dreams and maybe even give love a chance. VERDICT Reichl's vivid descriptions of food will have readers salivating, and an insider's look at life at a food magazine is fascinating. Her satisfying coming-of-age novel of love and loss vividly demonstrates the power of food to connect people across cultures and generations. [See Prepub Alert, 11/22/13.]--Melissa DeWild, Kent District Lib., Comstock Park, MI
Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
December 1, 2013
Not a yummy cookbook or memoir from the former editor in chief of Gourmet, but this first novel is still drenched in food lore and love. Billie Breslin is thrilled to find work at New York's upscale foodie magazine Delicious, then devastated when it is shut down. Left behind to answer the magazine's public relations hotline, she finds a letter that makes her rethink her own life.
Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
Starred review from January 1, 2014
Reichl, the former editor of Gourmet magazine and best-selling author of culinary memoirs (Tender at the Bone; Comfort Me with Apples), makes her fiction debut with a story set at an iconic food magazine in New York called Delicious. Billie Breslin has recently been hired as an assistant and soon is writing for the magazine, too, but her exciting new job comes to a halt when the magazine is abruptly shut down. Billie, however, is asked to stay on to handle calls for the "Delicious Guarantee," which promises money back if a recipe doesn't work. A guarantee question leads Billie to the magazine's locked library, where she stumbles upon letters written during World War II from a young girl named Lulu Swan to chef James Beard. Billie follows card catalog clues to find the remaining letters and goes to Ohio to look for Lulu. Her journey finally helps Billie see the truth about her own family and gives her the courage to realize her dreams and maybe even give love a chance. VERDICT Reichl's vivid descriptions of food will have readers salivating, and an insider's look at life at a food magazine is fascinating. Her satisfying coming-of-age novel of love and loss vividly demonstrates the power of food to connect people across cultures and generations. [See Prepub Alert, 11/22/13.]--Melissa DeWild, Kent District Lib., Comstock Park, MI
Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.