The Solace of Food: A Life of James Beard

by Robert Clark

Book Overview

A NYTBR Notable Book of the Year A vivid portrait...a thoroughly engrossing work of contemporary cultural history. --The New York Times Book Review This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1883642043
• ISBN13: 9781883642044
• Release Date: June 1998
• Publisher: Steerforth Press
• Length: 357 Pages
• Weight: 1.22 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.0" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

cooking

one GREAT MAN, a MUSt have in your foodie library, with out THIS book, how can you have a complete collection!

Revealing Look at the Life of the American Culinary Icon

The significance of the title of this book by Robert Clark is that James Beard had a somewhat rocky childhood, failed at his first love of being an actor, and never seemed to achieve any great satisfaction from his awkwardly homosexual inclination. Food was Beard's consolation.One major change in my view of the world due to my reading this book together with a reading of a biography of Julia Child is that I believe that Child and not Beard is the preeminant influence on American eating habits in the 20th century. Whether this is real or a failure of this book to communicate Beard's influence I am not sure. This question makes me feel this book is less than what it could have been. It almost seems as if the book were written about Hemingway without dealing with the foundations of Hemingway's literary art. An easier analogy may be that it is like a biography of Richard Feynman which makes no attempt to explain to the intelligent layman what it is about Feynman's work which made him a great physicist.In spite of this reservation, the book succeeds in communicating the facts of Beard's life in a highly readable, sympathetic presentation. Like other reviewers, I could not put the book down as long as I had the free time to read it. I cannot make the same unqualifiedly positive statement about the aforementioned biography of Child.One of the most interesting things about Beard's career is that were it not for his failure in front of the TV camera in the fiftys, he may have stolen a march on Child and had a greater impact on his American audience. He may have even become even more like the kind of trademark that Martha Stewart has become, in that many of the writings attributed to him were done by a staff of ghost writers, many of whom have become major names in American food writing. These include Marian Cunningham and Barbara Kafka.Another similarity to Stewart which tends to diminish him in comparison to Child is his very common practice of endorsing products and letting that endorsement interfere with his work. I may even give Martha Stewart the nod here in that Stewart has always taken an active interest in the quality of the products to which she has lent her name. A third similarity to Stewart is the fact that both began their career in food writing as caterers in the New York area.In the final analysis, this book does succeed in showing how Beard came to represent American Cookery at its best, even if it does not manage to show why he succeeded. This is an important book for understanding American food writing.

Fascinating, multi-faceted journey

I found this a compelling piece of writing. The starting point is certainly the life of an individual, i.e, James Beard. However, into that particular story the author weaves culinary history, social commentary, cultural analysis,and psychological insight. The result is an amazingly satisfying "read" that educates, illuminates, moves the heart, and deepens perspective both about this one man and also about the world in which he--and we--live. Robert Clark is able to paint a descriptive and insightful portrait of both the man and that world without romanticizing either. I found myself drawn into the book and reading it with relish; not wanting to put it down and also not wanting it to come to an end; and discovering that I have been enlightened, enriched, and moved by my experience with it. Sounds to me like the definition of a "good read!"