An excellent read, especially for those who love cooking, romance, and realistically poignant LGBT themes.
In Bailey’s debut novel, a blossoming relationship between a gay man and his allegedly straight neighbor begins through the art of cooking.
Pierre Jackson moves to Toronto from Detroit to be with his wealthy news anchor fiance, Dre. But after they have a dramatic fight, Pierre spends some time living on his own and enrolls in a French cooking class. His messy apron quickly catches the eye of his new neighbor, Vijay Khakwani, who invites him to come to his apartment every Thursday night to teach him how to cook. Pierre is instantly attracted, but due to Vijay’s swaggering, “straight-boy” persona, he tries to subdue his emotions as they develop a strong friendship. Vijay has his own problems, particularly with his overbearing, high-powered lawyer mother, who wants him to follow through on an arranged marriage to a woman. He tries to channel his frustration into meditation and studying the teachings of Buddhism, but he soon becomes overwhelmed with confusion about his true feelings for Pierre. The plot becomes increasingly absorbing when Dre reappears in Pierre’s life in an attempt to repair their relationship; meanwhile, Vijay tries desperately to suppress his attraction to men during a complicated identity crisis. Bailey’s novel is smart, captivating, and hilarious, seasoned with spicy moments of intimacy, hip and witty dialogue, and a hefty serving of drama. It tackles a wide range of subjects, including difficult-to-navigate gray areas of LGBT relationships, Buddhist philosophy, cultural identity, and the subtle yet prevailing homophobic tendencies of a supposedly welcoming modern society. The author beautifully melds the art of cooking with rising romantic desire and also examines engaging cultural dynamics as Pierre, an African-American man from Detroit, teaches Vijay, an Indo-Guyanese man who’s fairly far-removed from his cultural heritage, how to cook and enjoy traditional Indian cuisine. Also, although Pierre and Dre move to Toronto in order to be legally married, Dre still harbors anxieties about his family’s homophobia, and he worries that he’ll be treated differently at his workplace as an openly gay man. Although the novel’s ending is a surprise, readers won’t be disappointed.
An excellent read, especially for those who love cooking, romance, and realistically poignant LGBT themes.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Dog Ear Publisher
Review Posted Online: Aug. 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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