Just read a review in The Washington Post of Allegra Goodman's latest novel, The Cookbook Collector. I admit that the cover imagery, along with the title, bring to mind a gentle, women's-book-club-deals-with-life's-challenges-through-lifelong-friendship type of chick lit, but the review suggests otherwise. Ron Charles calls it "a searching contemplation of contemporary values in the age of sudden fortunes, sensational bankruptcies and terrorist attacks."
From Amazon:
If any contemporary author deserves to wear the mantel of Jane Austen, it's Goodman, whose subtle, astute social comedies perfectly capture the quirks of human nature. This dazzling novel is Austen updated for the dot-com era, played out between 1999 and 2001 among a group of brilliant risk takers and truth seekers. Still in her 20s, Emily Bach is the CEO of Veritech, a Web-based data-storage startup in trendy Berkeley. Her boyfriend, charismatic Jonathan Tilghman, is in a race to catch up at his data-security company, ISIS, in Cambridge, Mass. Emily is low-key, pragmatic, kind, serene—the polar opposite of her beloved younger sister, Jess, a crazed postgrad who works at an antiquarian bookstore owned by a retired Microsoft millionaire. When Emily confides her company's new secret project to Jonathan as a proof of her love, the stage is set for issues of loyalty and trust, greed, and the allure of power. What is actually valuable, Goodman's characters ponder: a company's stock, a person's promise, a forest of redwoods, a collection of rare cookbooks? Goodman creates a bubble of suspense as both Veritech and ISIS issue IPOs, career paths collide, social values clash, ironies multiply, and misjudgments threaten to destroy romantic desire.
Newcity Lit gave The Cookbook Collector a mixed review, concluding that "it’s a pleasurable read, absorbing and cathartic without demanding much effort or emotional investment in return. Trading complexity for neatness and ambiguity for warmth, The Cookbook Collector may not be one for the ages. It is, however, ideal for the summer of 2010."
I've not read anything by Allegra Goodman before, though I know she's gotten a lot of awards. Any thoughts on this one?
Mixed review or not, I really want to read this book!
Posted by: bermudaonion (Kathy) | July 08, 2010 at 08:58 AM
I've read two previous Goodman novels, Intuition and Kaaterskill Falls, and while I liked them, I found them sort of....workmanlike. Fairly interesting characters and plots, but not particularly inspiring prose or engaging ideas. Probably a writer to read if you are interested in the subject matter, but not necessarily one to be sure to read every title.
Posted by: Skip | July 09, 2010 at 12:49 PM
I am dying to read it and it counts for the 2010 EW Summer Books Challenge. If EW liked it....
Posted by: Julie P. | July 10, 2010 at 08:04 PM
Skip - thanks for weighing in.
Julie - gotta love EW!!!
Posted by: Gayle | July 13, 2010 at 07:04 AM
Comparing any author to Austen is, I think, doing them a great disservice--hard to live up to that. It definitely doesn't sound like it fits what I thought about it either, but maybe worth reading...at some point.
Posted by: Lisa | July 18, 2010 at 08:25 PM
I loved The Cookbook Collector, and I had only previously read half of Goodman's the Intuition. The Cookbook Collector is such a fully-developed story, the characters are unique and interesting and there is so much going on. I think Goodman does a great job capturing the zeitgeist and the book left me thinking very deeply about a great number of big questions. I also really enjoyed her writing style.
Posted by: Marnie | October 22, 2010 at 01:39 PM
Glad to hear that you liked the book so much, Marnie. I would love to check it out.
Posted by: Gayle Weiswasser | October 22, 2010 at 05:07 PM