Recommended by my brother the writer, I found this tedious; he was engaged and thrilled... Despite the sibling rivalry, this is largely a treatise on the use of food by Balzac to describe characters, emotions, motives, desires, etc. The author's intent is to document how Balzac was the first to use food and cooking in this way and that it opened the doors for many others. As I was unfamiliar with any of Balzac's writing, it was interesting to experience being caught up in the author's writing and to confuse fiction from reality. Repeatedly, I had to remind myself who was real as some chefs of the times are mentioned.
It is an interesting read but I labored at the end and forced myself to finish only for the sake of not being picked on by the older one in my family
