The Sex Life of Food [Hardcover]

Author Bunny (yes, really) Crumpacker takes a novel idea and expands it into one of the strangest and most interesting books that have come down the highway in many a moon. In the provocatively titled The Sex Life of Food: When Body and Soul Meet to Eat, an odd correlation is spun between the gratification present in the act of eating and the act of sex. I'm completely serious, that's what this is largely about. Not only are these two topics constantly intertwined in this bizarre book, but by the time you finish reading its 270 pages, a sort of subliminal trick will have been played on you whereby you'll start thinking of the two as relative to one another and wondering how you avoided heretofore seeing this connection! But there's more to this lovingly quirky and exhaustively researched book than that. There are also endless discussions (all wrapping back to the food/sex theme) about food throughout history, the dining preferences of the famous and infamous (including Hitler, a committed vegetarian sickened by the sight of raw meat, and Lizzie Borden force-fed mutton in the three days before her parents' gruesome murders). Bunny also draws us into the realization of how important comfort food is to people. She mentions that during the 1977 Manhattan blackout, guests at a famous hotel ate through stocks of sweets that would otherwise have lasted weeks. She also points out how when we're meeting socially, be it with friends or for business, food, or at least coffee or alcohol--in short the consumption of SOMETHING--is nearly always present. After reading about food in all its erotic, exotic, sensual, sensuous, neurotic, sinful, innocent and masterful glory, I felt like I'd just discovered that someone I'd known my entire life had a secret existence I knew nothing about. This book is really more about human psychology and culture than it is about foodstuffs, and what it tells about us all is more than a little shocking. A fun book with a great cover. Check it out sometime!

If anyone doubts the connection between food and sex they should go watch the old 1963 movie 'Tom Jones.' Or, of course, they could read this book. It's not a highbrow intellectual text on the psychological connection between the two. It is, instead, a series of stories, facts, quotations, and other tidbits. Inbetween it is witty, light, and on occassion downright funny (especially the chapter on the heating habits of selected politicians). One thing the book is not, is that it is definitely not a cookbook. There are no recipies guaranteed to turn the other person on (or off).

Strangely enough, as I read through the book, it seemed almost like all of this was known. A deja vu of the mind so to speak. But I had never consciencely though through what she was saying. I found the book totally enjoyable, informative as well as entertaining. It would be a good choice for an airplane ride, or maybe just one of the dreary, rainy spring weekends.

Perhaps I was hoping for something in the vein of Diane Ackerman's Natural History of the Senses or Michael Pollan's Botany of Desire; works that, while not scholarly, have a bit of depth and are at the same time engaging and entertaining.
The Sex Life of Food is not in that category. To me, it read like a collection of superficial factoids punctuated with rather obvious observations and conclusions.