Martini, Straight Up: The Classic American Cocktail
by Lowell Edmunds
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Book Summary Information
Author: Lowell EdmundsEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2003-03-07
ISBN: 0801873118
Number of pages: 192
Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press
Book Reviews of Martini, Straight Up: The Classic American Cocktail
Book Review: A Book Worthy of the Drink
Summary: 5 Stars
The "Mythologies" of the martini.
In this age of mixology trendiness, there is a lot of poorly written and pompous stuff passing for "cocktail scholarship." This charming book blows them all away, and it deserves to be much better known.
After a hysterical Preface, which includes a death wish, Edmunds gives a beautiful, concise history of the drink and then dives into what is the main topic of the work: the symbolic meaning the martini has accrued in our culture. He's a great researcher -- there are references here to the drink in obscure bestsellers of the time, movies, newspaper articles, design, pop art -- and he knows how to read all these media deeply and creatively so as to reveal the surprising messages the drink is asked to carry. I found his analysis of the gender/dominance messages of the martini particularly insightful.
Most importantly, Edmunds never loses sight of the essential lightness of his topic. He is having fun with it all, and is even lightly self-deprecating. Even the organization of the book is witty -- broken into "Simple Messages of the Martini" (e.g., "The Martini is optimistic, not pessimistic") and "Ambiguities of the Martini" ("The martini unites - the martini separates"). Drunken musings of a sober mind. Like Roland Barthes, Edmund's analysis only enhances our pleasure.
Summary of Martini, Straight Up: The Classic American Cocktail
From its contested origins in nineteenth-century California; through its popularity among the smart set of the 1930s, world leaders of the 1940s, and the men in the gray flannel suits of the 1950s; to its resurgence among today's retro-hipsters: Lowell Edmunds traces the history and cultural significance of the cocktail H. L. Mencken called "the only American invention as perfect as a sonnet."
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