Kim (Mistry) - reviewed on 8/2/2008 + 105 more book reviews

I picked this book up on a whim, thinking that no way can I like Anthony Bourdain any more than I do watching him on TV. I was wrong. This book is chock full of gastric adventures, and Bourdain's straightforward writing style, well, he writes like he speaks, and it's great! This book is pretty much a collection of most of the shows I've seen, but you get Tony's insight and deeper thoughts on the whole process. This guy is a cynic, and he's a hardass, but you get to see a deeper level of him in this book.
It's laugh out loud funny at times, his descriptions of some of the awful hotels he's had to stay in, how he felt having to dress in a traditional Japanese outfit or the way some people set him off are rib tickling. At other times, the despair, the poverty, the absolute human suffering paints a bleak picture.
But while he's on the road to a perfect meal, he never forgets, or let you forget, that not everyone lives in a perfect bubble of clean water, or food, or homes, those basics of life we take for granted.
I wish there were pictures, of the food, of the places he so richly describes. It's a wonderful book.

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