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Amazon.co.uk Review
A gorgeous, dark, and sensuous book that is part cookbook, part thriller, part eccentric philosophical treatise, reminiscent of perhaps the greatest of all books on food, Jean-Anthelme Brillat Savarin's The Physiology of Taste. Join Tarquin Winot as he embarks on a journey of the senses, regaling us with his wickedly funny, poisonously opinionated meditations on everything from the erotics of dislike to the psychology of a menu, from the perverse history of the peach to the brutalisation of the palate, from cheese as "the corpse of milk" to the binding action of blood. --Sue Sheph
Review
" The Debt to Pleasure has no flaws. It is witty, frequently hilarious, and wicked." -- "The Boston Globe"
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
It is difficult, as all the critics professional and amateur have amply demonstrated, to write anything about this book without giving something away. Rest assured that the book you think you're reading on page one will not be the book you turn out to be reading at the end, and rest assured also that you will be fascinated and captivated by the journey from one to the other. Beautifully done, and thoroughly satisfactory for those who, like myself, feel that the world has got slightly OUT OF HAND, that people simply don't understand what is truly important any more: namely, the correct proportions for a dry martini, the difference between a cottage pie and a shepherd's pie... I must stop, or I'll say something I shouldn't, and spoil it for you.
16 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
One's reaction to this book will, in large part, be predicated on how one reacts to cleverness and dark humor. For, while written with indisputable skill, Lanchester's novel is more than anything an exercise in droll, urbane, (dare I say smug) cleverness-at it's best (or worst, according to one's taste). Within the deliciously witty, snide, nasty, condescending, and rambling meditations of one Tarquin Winot lie dark kernels of truth regarding his true nature and past. Tarquin is both genius and gourmand, so his writings are loosely arranged around a seasonal menu, with tangential discourses on the various ingredients and much more. While his descriptions of food are certainly evocative, there's much more going on than a simple foodie travelogue. It's obvious quite early on that he's a pampered egomaniac, and indeed, after a while, his self-absorbed ramblings begin to grow wearisome. However, mingled with these are broad clues as to true megalomania and psychopathy. All of this emerges as he recounts an interview he grants his brother's biographer.
That some reviewers found the book disturbing or unsettling seems rather odd. Well-cultured and well-spoken psychopaths are hardly a new phenomenon in either literature or real life, and that's essentially what Tarquin is. It's possible that this disquiet comes from the reader becoming enamored of Tarquin and then finding out his true nature at the very end, but this seems exceedingly unlikely. For all Lanchester's skill, Tarquin's "secret" is fairly evident quite early on, via a number of extremely broad hints, so that readers who are paying any kind of attention will quickly realize that all is not as it might seem. In the end, it's a fairly clever and certainly well-written character study, with a dark secret that is unearthed rather too soon for the book to be entirely satisfactory. Still, it is clear Lanchester is a writer worth watching.
15 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
It is always difficult to divorce yourself from sympathising with the narrator when reading a novel. The character of Tarquin Winot is at first just a snob- then turn into something far more sinister. Ten out of ten to Lanchester for creating such a man as his voice never slips- he seems real by the end of the book. There is an open endedness to the novel that should be applauded- there is never any excuse or reason for Winot's behaviour- he just does what he wants.
This is everything failed attampts to create a consumist monster (like Patrick Bateman in Brett Easton Ellis's American Psycho)didn't achieve. Lanchester is saying that just because a person is rich or intelligent it doesn't make them good.
Lanchester's narrative is as rich as christmas pudding. The best thing about it though is its slight ambiguity- you need to keep reading it to understand everything that's going on...and to read those recipes, of course.
This is everything failed attampts to create a consumist monster (like Patrick Bateman in Brett Easton Ellis's American Psycho)didn't achieve. Lanchester is saying that just because a person is rich or intelligent it doesn't make them good.
Lanchester's narrative is as rich as christmas pudding. The best thing about it though is its slight ambiguity- you need to keep reading it to understand everything that's going on...and to read those recipes, of course.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Horribly fascinating
John Lanchester has created here a horribly fascinating protagonist: educated, cultured and snobbish, he is also an egocentric monster totally without empathy and utterly, utterly... Read more
Published 9 days ago by Kyanite99
Foodie intellectuals' delight
The author is well read and opinionated about everything which is part of the joy of this strange text that is part novel, part cookery and cuisine guide. Read more
Published 7 months ago by V. Morley
Try other Lanchester
I think John Lanchester is a great writer. He tackles subjects from finance to food to family history in a clear, engaging prose style. And he always has interesting things to say. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Kate
Food-upmanship
This is a dazzling tour de force by a writer with infinite powers over language. A bachelor, brother of a more famous sculptor, convinced of his superiority, recounts a wonderful... Read more
Published on 15 Sep 2009 by Eileen Shaw
Leaves you hungry for more
John Lanchester gives us a study in pretentiousness, self-denial and deranged envy that would sit proudly on any psychologist's bookshelves, while keeping the reader gripped in... Read more
Published on 31 Oct 2008 by Mr. M. Bloomfield
the debt to pedantry.
if you are a pedantic wanker, with a dark ironic streak and a love of good food, like me, you will love this. Read more
Published on 28 Sep 2008 by lushchica
Genius
I rarely re-read books (there are too many to read once, never mind twice) but this is one that I get the itch to read once every six months or so. Read more
Published on 5 May 2008 by Mr. A. D. Garner
A disappointment of over-indulgent prose and frequent illogical...
My eagerness to start a new book this month quickly gave way to disappointment as the author's over-indulgent prose and frequent detours into the character's past or recipes made... Read more
Published on 15 Mar 2008 by Retired
A review of The Debt to Pleasure by John Lanchester
One of my greatest pleasures is eating, so I must cook. I savour, therefore I cook. I like tasty food made with fresh ingredients that address all four of our tastes - salt, sour,... Read more
Published on 24 Nov 2007 by Philip Spires
Terrific
The Debt To Pleasure is a journey from the south of England to the South of France with the most pretentious, smug, obnoxious narrator imaginable - the reader is treated to some... Read more
Published on 15 Aug 2007 by Hawkeye
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