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sreesha_diva's review
This whole time I've been waiting for the memoir part of this so-called "memoir of the senses" to begin. I've gotten several lengthy pages about a whole lot of nothing. Even the chapter I abandoned this book at begins with, "I'm quite bored by this subject" and I was like yeah, no shit.
Did I discover anything new in these pages? No.
Should I have DNF'd it after the first chapter? Sigh, yes.
Did I discover anything new in these pages? No.
Should I have DNF'd it after the first chapter? Sigh, yes.
katestar_p's review against another edition
3.0
The musings on aphrodisiac foods & other pleasures of the senses are delightful, although a little opinionated, while the recipes are not at all my cup of tea.
totheliteraturelighthouse's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
4.0
velvetminefield's review
3.0
an interesting mix of story and recipes...unfortunately, it seems that both the stories and recipes have suffered by dilution from the other
elspethm's review
1.0
I couldn't even finish this. It was really boring, even though much of the book was laden with body parts and descriptions of sexual acts.
salieri2's review
5.0
If you're looking for an aphrodisiac manual, a Vegas wedding chapel for your inner Britney Spears, look somewhere else. As some reviewers have pointed out, almost every food item on the planet is considered to have erotic connotations to Allende, be they visual, olfactory or legendary, she can make it seem sexy.
This is because it's not a serious attempt to prove or disprove aphrodisiac qualities of food, it is, as the title states, a memoir of the senses, a scrapbook of sensuality, and Allende considers cooking and eating to be sensual activities. Read this book and its poetery, short stories, anecdotes, legends, and yes, recipes, and you may come to agree, even if you're not a foodie or an honest pig. Frankly, a lot of the recipes are so rich, involved and time-consuming that they could replace actual sex, with all the energy and time spent making and tasting them I'm not sure I could even eat once done, much less do anything else.
It's about zest for life, though; read it after Paula to appreciate Allende's correlation between various forms of appetite and life. She says herself in the intro that when she began to dream of food she knew she was healing after her daughter's death, and this scrapbook of tastes and flavors and textures is as close to embracing life as you can get. Plus, there's a freakin' awesome mushroom soup recipe on page 119, and you can read the excerpt including it at: IsabelAllende.Com.
This is because it's not a serious attempt to prove or disprove aphrodisiac qualities of food, it is, as the title states, a memoir of the senses, a scrapbook of sensuality, and Allende considers cooking and eating to be sensual activities. Read this book and its poetery, short stories, anecdotes, legends, and yes, recipes, and you may come to agree, even if you're not a foodie or an honest pig. Frankly, a lot of the recipes are so rich, involved and time-consuming that they could replace actual sex, with all the energy and time spent making and tasting them I'm not sure I could even eat once done, much less do anything else.
It's about zest for life, though; read it after Paula to appreciate Allende's correlation between various forms of appetite and life. She says herself in the intro that when she began to dream of food she knew she was healing after her daughter's death, and this scrapbook of tastes and flavors and textures is as close to embracing life as you can get. Plus, there's a freakin' awesome mushroom soup recipe on page 119, and you can read the excerpt including it at: IsabelAllende.Com.