Tuesday, May 01, 2007
Book Club Food: The Birth of Venus
The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant (every time I type that, I type my own name and then have to backspace to fix it) is a fairly popular book club book as is, so I probably don't need to sell it too hard. Essentially, it's the coming of age story of a girl in the height of the Venetian Golden Age, during the reign of the de Medecis, the French invasion, and the evil priest Savanarola. Lucretzia has an unusual understanding of art for a girl of her time, and of course there is a not-terribly-shocking reason why that we find out later.
(What follows are my personal feelings on it, and your mileage may vary.)
In short, the best part about this book was the very detailed, thorough description of Venice, art, and family life. Dunant is certainly in love with that time and setting, and it shows. It nearly balances out my intense dislike of books written from the precocious, preternaturally brilliant, anachronistically liberal mind of a teenage girl, but not quite. Lucretzia, like most 14/15 year old girls, is cruisin' for a bruisin' thanks to her bullheadedness, and she gets it in spades, some deserved, some not. The problem is, she's in the middle of a very deadly time, and mostly I found myself wanting to shake her silly and tell her to get a grip.
The vivid details of The Birth of Venus apply even to the lurid, seamier side, and that is some relief from the sugary-to-angsty adolescence of its speaker. Its discussion of slavery, sexuality (homo- and hetero-), diseases, and dismemberment is more than frank. Once she grew up a little, I found the book a little easier to stomach, but unfortunately there are also several distractingly abrupt character personality changes (not all hers) that serve to wrap up the storyline. Charming and convenient, but inexplicable and unlikely.
Further, there are a few hints at even more non-coincidental tie-ins of other famous names towards the end, but I'm not sure if my fevered mind was just hoping they really meant something. Saying that, I think the end could have used a little more polishing; it's already nearly 400 pages, and details were certainly not sparing in other parts, so I found the whimsical suggestions without follow-through a bit annoying.
To finish, it's a very womany book club book, replete with a discussion guide in the back, so if that's your thing, enjoy. Her next book is about a Venetian courtesan of the same era, so if you like the setting but not the characters, that might serve you better.
Now on to what really matters: THE FOOD.
Food Mentioned in The Birth of Venus:
(grouped if it was a meal)
Roast meat & spiced gravies
Boiled capon, roast pheasant, trout, pastas, saffron pudding, creme brulee, & wine
Roasted peacock's tongues, turtle dove, chamois deer, boiled capon, chicken, veal, whole roasted kid; fish pie with oranges, nutmegs, saffron and dates
Milk puddings
Sweet meats and sugared almonds
Bread and pork jelly
Fragrant white wine and pigeons
Figs, pomegranites, walnuts, and herbs
Spiced wine
Bread and quince preserves
Roasted chestnuts
Cold meats, pork jelly, fresh roasted pike stuffed with raisins
Fried zucchini flowers
Our Menu
The problem here is that the food is fairly medieval. Nobody was about to go rip out a few peacock tongues or boil up some pork jelly, so we just went with Italian.
Bruschetta
Baked Ziti
Salad with Italian dressing and fruits
Breadsticks
Tiramisu
Venetian Sunset (sparkling white wine, pineapple juice, cherry juice, crushed ice)
Red and white wine
(What follows are my personal feelings on it, and your mileage may vary.)
In short, the best part about this book was the very detailed, thorough description of Venice, art, and family life. Dunant is certainly in love with that time and setting, and it shows. It nearly balances out my intense dislike of books written from the precocious, preternaturally brilliant, anachronistically liberal mind of a teenage girl, but not quite. Lucretzia, like most 14/15 year old girls, is cruisin' for a bruisin' thanks to her bullheadedness, and she gets it in spades, some deserved, some not. The problem is, she's in the middle of a very deadly time, and mostly I found myself wanting to shake her silly and tell her to get a grip.
The vivid details of The Birth of Venus apply even to the lurid, seamier side, and that is some relief from the sugary-to-angsty adolescence of its speaker. Its discussion of slavery, sexuality (homo- and hetero-), diseases, and dismemberment is more than frank. Once she grew up a little, I found the book a little easier to stomach, but unfortunately there are also several distractingly abrupt character personality changes (not all hers) that serve to wrap up the storyline. Charming and convenient, but inexplicable and unlikely.
Further, there are a few hints at even more non-coincidental tie-ins of other famous names towards the end, but I'm not sure if my fevered mind was just hoping they really meant something. Saying that, I think the end could have used a little more polishing; it's already nearly 400 pages, and details were certainly not sparing in other parts, so I found the whimsical suggestions without follow-through a bit annoying.
To finish, it's a very womany book club book, replete with a discussion guide in the back, so if that's your thing, enjoy. Her next book is about a Venetian courtesan of the same era, so if you like the setting but not the characters, that might serve you better.
Now on to what really matters: THE FOOD.
Food Mentioned in The Birth of Venus:
(grouped if it was a meal)
Roast meat & spiced gravies
Boiled capon, roast pheasant, trout, pastas, saffron pudding, creme brulee, & wine
Roasted peacock's tongues, turtle dove, chamois deer, boiled capon, chicken, veal, whole roasted kid; fish pie with oranges, nutmegs, saffron and dates
Milk puddings
Sweet meats and sugared almonds
Bread and pork jelly
Fragrant white wine and pigeons
Figs, pomegranites, walnuts, and herbs
Spiced wine
Bread and quince preserves
Roasted chestnuts
Cold meats, pork jelly, fresh roasted pike stuffed with raisins
Fried zucchini flowers
Our Menu
The problem here is that the food is fairly medieval. Nobody was about to go rip out a few peacock tongues or boil up some pork jelly, so we just went with Italian.
Bruschetta
Baked Ziti
Salad with Italian dressing and fruits
Breadsticks
Tiramisu
Venetian Sunset (sparkling white wine, pineapple juice, cherry juice, crushed ice)
Red and white wine
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