REVIEWED BY SUE CORBETT
CRITIC'S CHOICE
NOVEL
Renata Knox, 19, arrives on Nantucket, Mass.—where she was born and her mother died—in the company of her new fiancé, preppy rich-boy Cade Driscoll. Renata is hungry, specifically for something only one local chef, her godmother Marguerite Beale, can provide. Marguerite closed her sumptuous restaurant, Les Parapluies, 14 years earlier following the sudden death of her best friend—Renata's mother. Against her father's explicit orders that she not contact Marguerite, Renata invites herself to dinner. As Marguerite renews her rituals—whipping up garlic aioli in the Cuisinart, wielding her Wüsthof against a bunch of fresh basil— she reflects on the events that led to her self-exile, and the "whistling gaps a person leaves behind when she dies." Meanwhile, Renata faces powerful stimuli in the form of a hunky houseboy who invites her to the beach, a white roadside cross that she realizes marks the spot where her mother died and an overbearing future mother-in-law. Multiple pots boil over, but Renata eventually gets fed exactly what she needs, and readers in search of summer fare that's a cut above the usual beach provisions do too. Hilderbrand, who wrote 2002's Nantucket Nights, serves up a mouthwatering menu, keeps the Veuve Clicquot flowing and tops it all with a dollop of mystery that will have even drowsy sunbathers turning pages until the very satisfying end.
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by Jake Lamar
REVIEWED BY BOB MEADOWS
NOVEL
Set in Paris in the summer of 2001, Ghosts begins with the illusion that its protagonists might be caught up in the Sept. 11 attacks. Marva Dobbs, an expatriate from Brooklyn, finds her life spiraling out of control when she takes a much-younger Algerian lover. But Hassan disappears—accused of bombing a building, which police believe may presage a bloodier terrorist act. Then Marva goes missing too, leaving her family to search for her.
But the plot takes a turn: Hassan isn't part of a conspiracy, and Ghosts, it turns out, isn't about 9/11 after all. While hidden lives and secret agents abound, the novel is really about family and love and what it takes to hold both together. Lamar, a Bronx native who has lived in Paris since 1993, tidies up his fifth novel a bit too neatly, but his unique storytelling makes for a lively read.
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by Cathi Hanauer
REVIEWED BY MEGHAN SUTHERLAND
FICTION
Some authors need, say, 50 pages to draw readers in. But when Hanauer, who edited the phenomenal essay collection The Bitch in the House and penned the novel My Sister's Bones, is at the helm, synapses fire immediately. Her excellent Sweet Ruin, about a couple whose infant has died, is no different. It's been two years since Elayna Leopold, 35, lost her son Oliver. With her attorney husband working long hours, Elayna—a former magazine editor—spends a long summer in the suburbs watching her 6-year-old daughter and becoming entangled with an oft-shirtless 22-year-old hunk. Intelligent and engaging, Sweet Ruin examines the fallout from grief and the intricacies of family, while weighing the comforts of the prosaic against the tantalizing allure of the new.
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>Nonfiction
Pleasurable Kingdom by Jonathan Balcombe Dumb animals? Not according to this well-reasoned, engaging book by animal behaviorist Balcombe, who argues that critters share our capacities for humor, empathy and aesthetic pleasure.
Best Seat in the House by Christine Brennan Raised in a pre-Title IX era, when organized sports were male turf, USA Today's Brennan writes an irresistible memoir paying tribute to the remarkable dad who inspired her to become one of the country's top female sportswriters.
But Enough About Me by Jancee Dunn Chronicling her journey up the ladder at Rolling Stone, this disarmingly funny memoir about celebrity journalism allows readers to live vicariously as Dunn reveals tricks for getting stars to spill.
Stuart: A Life Backwards by Alexander Masters An advocate for the homeless in Britain, Masters vibrantly profiles one Stuart Shorter—convict, junkie and "society-loathing bastard"—as both a terror and a delight. Beginning with Shorter's leap in front of a train, it's a quirky, affecting book.
>Heat
While researching his new book Heat, Bill Buford served as a "kitchen slave" at New York City's Babbo restaurant for his hard-driving subject, Mario Batali. Now he dishes about the maestro—and his eye-opening turn as an apprentice.
HOW DID YOU CHOOSE MARIO? I was having a dinner for Jay McInerney and Mario came. He took over the evening, and he turned out to be this extreme, appetite-driven man who was very smart—breaking boundaries all the time. I went into his kitchen as a "spy."
ANY DISASTERS? We got hit at 6:15 when I thought I'd mastered the pasta station; I had triple-stacked pans of sauces on shelves around me and I turned to hear a horrifying splashing as pan after pan fell into the pasta cooker. The kitchen froze.
WHAT DID MARIO DO TO AMAZE YOU? Just riffing on what was seasonal—beans or fiddlehead ferns or pickled black radishes. He has one of the fastest minds you'll ever see.
DID THIS CHANGE YOU? By about 25 lbs.—Mario eats and drinks with a relish that's contagious. We've had 40-course meals.
WAS IT HARD TO KEEP UP? I was with him in Tennessee when he'd cooked all day for a banquet, and at 5 a.m., he was still going. We were in this rich man's house and he was making breakfast for stragglers. He'd heard there was a great 1961 Latour in the cellar, and he came back up with it, looking like a cat who ate the cream.
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