Washington Post Book Reviews
For You
Wednesday November 24, 2010
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THREE BOOKS ON RELIGION
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Reviewed by Christopher Schoppa
Religion is an endless source of lively conversation and disagreement, especially in the political arena. From private houses to statehouses, Americans have very different views about religion and how it should affect civic life. Here are three books that suggest answers.
1. "America's Four Gods: What We Say About God -- & What That Says About Us" by Paul Froese and Christopher Bader (Oxford Univ., $24.95). The authors, both associate professors of sociology at Baylor University, undertook a daunting task: to unearth what Americans believe about God by crisscrossing the country, canvassing thousands, joining worship services and speaking with religious communities. The study found correlations between what people think of God and how they live their lives. Is He authoritative, benevolent, critical or distant? (Or is He a She?) The authors conclude that "our picture of God is worth a thousand queries into the substance of our moral and philosophical beliefs."
2. "The Amish Way: Patient Faith in a Perilous World," by Donald B. Kraybill, Steven M. Nolt and David L. Weaver-Zercher (Jossey-Bass, $24.95). For most Americans, the Amish call to mind black buggies, unusual clothing and masterfully crafted furniture. Tack on the "no electricity" edict, and you've painted a picture of a reclusive society. That picture was complicated, however, by the horrific slaying of five Amish schoolchildren in Lancaster County, Pa., in October of 2o06 and what happened soon after -- the Amish forgave the killer. How could they? Why would they? In addressing those questions, the authors point out that there are over 40 subgroups of Amish and no central governing body. But they are all bound by a central tenet: patience.
3. "A Cheerful & Comfortable Faith: Anglican Religious Practice in the Elite Households of Eighteenth-Century Virginia," by Lauren F. Winner (Yale Univ., $45). Those with a keen interest in the role of religion in early America will find a wealth of informed scholarship and evocative descriptions in this volume. Winner, an assistant professor at Duke Divinity School, takes the novel approach of using domestic items (from needlework to silver to cookbooks) to reveal how Anglicanism was ingrained in the daily lives of the landed gentry, shaping their world view on everything from slavery to baptism.
Christopher Schoppa can be reached at schoppac(at symbol)washpost.com.
Copyright 2010 Washington Post Writers Group
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FIVE NOVELS ABOUT FOOD
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Reviewed by Yvonne Zipp
With food blogs mushrooming faster than Julia Child could whip up an omelet -- complete with glamour shots of dinner that would make a pinup blush -- writing about mealtimes involves competition Proust never faced. These days, everybody's an expert. A madeleine wouldn't rate unless it was drizzled with salted caramel and served with cappuccino foam and an assortment of handmade truffles. But the best food writing skips the deconstructed, the stacked, the drizzled and the foamed and just goes straight for the good stuff.
1. Mark Kurlansky made a name for himself by constructing entire histories around just one ingredient ("Salt," "Cod"). Now, in a new collection of loosely linked short fiction, "Edible Stories" (Riverhead; paperback, $16), he takes the opposite approach, allotting each menu item just a few pages. The first offering is among the weakest, as a man finds himself distanced from his life after he loses his senses of taste and smell. (Salt makes an appearance, although this time it's Hawaiian sea salt, and nobody manages to cook with it.) Far more satisfying are "Osetra," in which a Puerto Rican shoplifter develops a taste for caviar; "Menudo," in which a senator embarks on an affair with his translator; and "The Soup," set in Alaska and offering an unusual twist on comfort food.
2. Serious foodies will swoon over the meals in Richard C. Morais' "The Hundred-Foot Journey" (Scribner, $23). Hassan Haji's grandfather established a Tiffin Wallah empire in India, delivering lunches via bicycle, while his son turned what had been three tandoori ovens under a GI tent into a successful restaurant. After a tragedy, the Haji clan immigrates to France. There, they open a restaurant opposite one owned by the fearsome Madame Gertrude Mallory, who knows how to cook everything -- even a rat. (Rub it "in olive oil and crushed shallots, grilling it over a wood fire made from smashed wine barrels, and serving it with a Bordelaise sauce.") Morais throws himself into the kind of descriptive writing that makes reading a gastronomic event, whether it's a 12-course meal or Hassan's first egg-salad sandwich: "Never before had I experienced anything so determinedly tasteless, wet, and white."
3. Want a quick way to tell if a novel about noshing is being marketed as literary fiction or women's fiction? Check for comfort-food recipes. (This isn't a slam; I'm totally in favor of baked goods.) However, a candy-colored cover is no excuse for improbable plotting or partially hydrogenated characters. When we first meet Rose-Ellen "Zell" Carmichael Roy in Alicia Bessette's "Simply From Scratch" (Dutton, $25.95), she's wearing her dead husband's camouflage apron and promptly sets her kitchen on fire. Nonetheless, Zell is determined to win a baking contest to get the $20,000 that her husband, a photographer, wanted to raise for survivors of Hurricane Katrina before his death in New Orleans.
4. Far superior is Monique Truong's terrific "Bitter in the Mouth" (Random House, $25). Linda Hammerick, like Rose Edelstein in Aimee Bender's "The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake," has a fraught relationship with her sense of taste. She experiences words as flavors. (Her synesthesia comes in handy, since mom's idea of cooking involves using cans of mushroom soup as a bonding agent.) "Disappointed" tastes like "toast, slightly burned," while her childhood icon, Dolly Parton, is Sweet 'n Low. Her best friend's name tastes like canned peaches. ("Packed in heavy syrup or its own juice?" Kelly asks, and a lifelong friendship is born.) With a heroine who literally eats words, Truong is amply aware of the power of them. After an opening that feels like pure Southern Gothic, complete with an emotionally withholding mom and a gay great-uncle who could be channeling Tennessee Williams, Truong wields her narrative like a quarterstaff, knocking readers' expectations right out from under them.
5. Melanie Hoffman is another character who gets the wind knocked out of her -- in Stacey Ballis' "Good Enough to Eat" (Berkley; paperback, $14). After she loses 145 pounds, her husband promptly dumps her for her fatter friend. Faced with a depleted bank account and a teetering new business selling healthy takeout, Melanie has never had a better excuse to dive into the Haagen-Dazs. "Good Enough to Eat" boasts a wry sense of humor, but it relies too much on self-help lingo and stock characters. Melanie's confidantes include Delia, an African-American woman who serves as the voice of common sense, and Kai, her gay best friend. (It's long past time for the sassy gay characters of women's fiction to go on strike, refusing to dispense fashion or relationship advice until they get their own blasted book.) But Ballis captures an overeater's complicated relationship with food: Loving descriptions of dinner parties are interspersed with Melanie's memories of her cherished Easy Bake oven and paeans to mashed potatoes and macaroni and cheese.
Yvonne Zipp regularly reviews books for the Christian Science Monitor.
Copyright 2010 Washington Post Writers Group
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