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THE ONE TRUE BARBECUE

Name: THE ONE TRUE BARBECUE
Author: Rien Fertel
ISBN: 978-1-4767-9397-9

FIRE, SMOKE, AND THE PITMASTERS WHO COOK THE WHOLE HOG

by Rien Fertel photographed by Denny Culbert ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 10, 2016

Fertel is well-aware that the ground he covers isn't entirely new, but food fans and lovers of Americana alike will go whole...

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Fertel (Imagining the Creole City: The Rise of Literary Culture in Nineteenth-Century New Orleans, 2014, etc.) mines the small towns of Tennessee and the Carolinas in search of the pinnacle of Southern cuisine: whole hog barbecue.

Growing up in the Cajun heartland of Louisiana, the author missed out on what many regard as the most Southern of food traditions. Not until he joined the Southern Foodways Alliance did he truly discover “real barbecue.” A chance trip to Henderson, Tennessee, introduced Fertel to pitmaster Ronnie Hampton of Siler's Old Time BBQ, and the author spent a steamy morning mesmerized by the grueling labor, smoky flames, and long hours that define whole hog barbecue. Upon first taste, Fertel was transported through the centuries. "I was tasting history, culture, ritual, and race,” he writes. “I was eating the South and all its exceptionalities, commonalities, and horrors....Everything I loathed and everything I loved about the region I called home." From that moment on, the author was driven by a sometimes-distracting zealousness to find every whole hog pitmaster in the South, resulting in this blend of personal, culinary, and regional history. Readers follow Fertel to the heart of it all: Pitt County, North Carolina, where he uncovered the history of the Jones family and their famous Skylight Inn, which in many ways parallels the history of barbecue in America itself. Interweaving culinary and ethnographic history with vibrant character profiles and mouthwatering food writing, Fertel takes readers on an anthropological journey across back country roads and generations to unearth the rich legacy of this art. Mouths will water, but the most discerning readers will likely find the phrase "some of the best barbecue I've ever eaten" and its many permutations growing increasingly meaningless with each utterance.

Fertel is well-aware that the ground he covers isn't entirely new, but food fans and lovers of Americana alike will go whole hog for this loving paean to a distinct tradition.

Pub Date: May 10, 2016

ISBN: 978-1-4767-9397-9

Page Count: 288

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: March 30, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2016

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.