200/200

Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise by Ruth Reichl

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


I liked this book more than I thought I would. I am not a memoir person at all, but it did keep me interested. However, the problem I had with the book was the main character/author herself. For some reason, she drove me nuts! Maybe it was within the first couple pages as she complained about only making $82,000 (in 1990's dollars) to write about free fancy meals. In those same pages she talks about the all the reasons she does not want the job at the NY Times. Even though she sabotages her interview, she is just SO good that they hire her anyway. Poor you.So her family moves to NY and she begins to be her own person by going against the grain of old critics and the Times and weathers complaints. In order to remain incognito, she disguises herself with wigs, makeup, clothes, etc. But that's not all. When she dresses up as someone, she also takes on their personalities. To me, this seemed like a thinly veiled excuse to act like a complete bitch (or insert other adjective depending on the persona). The fact that she just morphed into this new person was so cheesy to me. I also found her son to be extremely precocious, saying things like, 'I wouldn't want to eat at a super expensive restaurant every day. Then it wouldn't be special anymore. 'In the end, it was interesting and she was a good storyteller. But I was left wondering how many times one can eat a sexually described serving of foie gras without becoming morbidly obese.

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