Letters to the Editor
bookseller
Published Letters: 40 Editor's Choice: 6
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re mystery and suspense
[Read the article: "The Da Vinci Code"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]>Mystery and suspense are different genres for a reason. The bad writing in this novel is the scar tissue from the surgery that joined these two very different genres into a single novel.
I disagree. TDVC -- which I find myself in the weird position of defending, even though I certainly didn't like it more than middling -- is very traditionally structured conspiracy/suspense, which is essentially an offshoot of espionage (in that the "bad guy" -- as in espionage -- is a plural entity, like a club or a fraternal organization or a religious group, rather than one individual villain). The set-up is that this group has a secret that it has preserved for a long time, that it will stop at nothing (including murder) to preserve that secret, and that our protagonist stumbles, in one way or another, on that secret. "Rosemary's Baby" and "The Boys from Brazil" are examples, as are "Marathon Man," all of Daniel Easterman's "religious conspiracy" thrillers, Reginald Hill's "Who Guards a Prince," "The Assassini" and "The Wind Chill Factor" (both by Thomas Gifford) Carolyn Hougan's fabulous "The Romeo Flag" and "Shooting in the Dark," and virtually all the (many) thrillers that have centered on either Propaganda Due or the notoriously long-rumored "fifth man" in the Cambridge spy ring of the 1930s.
Forgive me, but I am, in fact, a bookseller.
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re Bourdain
[Read the article: Bite me!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]FWIW, and from someone who's hosted multiple meet-the-author events with Tony, he's an incredibly nice guy. He's enormously generous, particularly -- though by no means exclusively -- to people who are battling the kinds of substance-abuse problems that he went through, and he's also unflaggingly loyal. My favorite memory of Tony is from a party we threw a few years ago. He was passing around hors d'ouevres (after whispering to me that I should call the braised onions "onion confit" because "the customers love that shit"), and he'd go up to all these little old ladies, holding out his tray and saying "My name is Trevor, and I'll be your server this evening." And after every tray-pass, the room would be full of whispers: "Oh my goodness, that was Anthony Bourdain. You know, he looks so rude, but really, what a lovely boy. His mother must be so proud."
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Good Host/Good Guest
[Read the article: Bite me!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]If you're any kind of host at all, you will make sure that all of your guests are not only well-fed, but also okay with what they're expected to eat.
Hospitality is a two-way street. As a host, I will always ask, before deciding on a menu, whether any of my guests are vegetarians, vegans, non-red-meat-eaters, Kosher, suffering from colitis and thus compelled to shun virtually all fiber, avoiding carbs, keeping a strict eye on saturated fats, lactos-intolerant, or allergic to soy/wheat/nuts/dairy/shellfish/fermented products/red wine/[your allergen here]. I will then make an effort to accommodate them, which effort may take the form of designing a menu around their restrictions or (in the case of heavy-duty restrictions) making sure there's plenty for them to eat while everybody else chows down on pork chops and chocolate pie, or whatever I have happened to cook.
The guest's obligation, in this case, is to shut up about why he/she isn't eating the pork chops and make yum-yum noises about the steamed kale. And if, despite my best efforts, he/she does not in fact get enough to eat, or enough deliciousness, to shut up about that, too, and count on picking up a nice soy pizza on the way home. There's nothing ruder or more tedious at a dinner party than a guest or a host who fails to understand that the food -- however carefully prepared, however disappointing on the plate -- is not the primary point of the exercise.
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re "Vegetarian"
[Read the article: Bite me!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Maybe her friend is a Polite Vegetarian. Or a Non-Pain-in-the-Ass Vegetarian. I realize that you have apparently elected yourself the arbiter of acceptable Vegetarian behavior, but you might consider that the title may not be respected beyond the borders of your kingdom.
A friend of mine regards herself as keeping Kosher despite the fact that she will eat in restaurants with one kitchen serving up both milk and meat (she orders fish). Are you going to take issue with her as well, or does your mandate extend solely to Vegetarianism?
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in response
[Read the article: Bite me!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Bookseller, it's pretty well established by now that you've got a problem with vegetarians and vegans.
Really? I'd be awfully grateful if you could point to a single post of mine in which I expressed anything approaching "a problem" with vegetarians and vegans. My only post in this thread had to do with the fact that Tony Bourdain is a tremendously nice guy. And I don't post often in the Letters section, precisely because I find it overpopulated with the angry and the self-righteous, with whom I do, indeed, have a serious problem.
Next time you're tempted to use a phrase like "pretty well established," toots, you might want to check whether you have the facts to back it up.