The Gallery of Regrettable Food
by James Lileks
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Book Reviews of The Gallery of Regrettable Food
Book Review: Funny, funny... at least while we're on top!
Summary: 4 Stars
A previous reviewer has suggested sharing this book with offline friends... well, we shared this with my mother, who pretended to laugh and then got VERY serious.The thing is, she and her generation grew up admiring this food, idolizing this food, serving this food to their families. This jello-smeared weiner-bespattered stuff WAS the staff of life for a few years there. And that means some people take this real seriously. So definitely enjoy the book...but maybe put it away when older folks come to visit.
Someday, somebody will poke fun at us for our obsession with stuff like Calamari and Tiramisu, and the fact that we can't eat anything that's not encased in a "wrap!" How many of today's food choices will be "regrettable" 20 years in the future? And how funny will you find it then...huh, Grampaw???
Book Review: Disappointed
Summary: 2 Stars
James Lileks is a very funny man. I've followed his writing since he wrote for the student newspaper at the University of Minnesota. He currently writes a great column for a poor newspaper in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He has one of the best humor websites anywhere on the web, so I was primed for another great work. This book just isn't up to his high standards. I think it is too long with too much material to comment on and not enough variety in his descriptions. James usually can think of many different ways to look at a subject. He finds suggestions of ideas in the background of a picture that are usually hilarious. In this book, he comes up with the same observations too often. I would guess he was under pressure to finish it and make it a long book resulting in less than his best work. I really wanted to like it.Book Review: Outrageous and Hysterical
Summary: 5 Stars
James Lileks may be the greatest humorist in America today. This book is a gallery of some of the genuinely awful cookbooks of the past. Jawdroppingly outrageous attempts to make ketchup a part of every course of the meal, Jello used in nearly obscene ways and meat, Meat, MEAT; they're all here. All of this described with a smooth prose that always delivers with an unexpected sting; vaguely reminiscent of Dave Barry, but unlike Barry, who I find works best in small doses, this builds with every page. And amidst all the silliness of Stag Weiner Bakes, Lileks manages to capture a warm glow of nostalgia for this lost Americana from the pre-ironic age. Production values are excellent, capturing the garish colors, limp art, and deeply odd character of these strange old cookbooks.Book Review: Meat was ready to meet me... and the horror began!
Summary: 5 Stars
James Lileks decided not to let those old 50's cookbooks go to waste. Instead he reveals some of the most hideous photos of food ever unleashed on man kind. Then he writes commentary: pointing out the evils, reveling in the drawings and doing his best to explain why this was thought to be appetizing. The result is hilarious.
"The Gallery of Regrettable Food" is filled with pictures that will make you gasp, and writing that will have you falling out of your chair laughing. It's like Mystery Science Theater with cookbooks and it works surprisingly well.
One of the best sections covers images of meat and its almost enough to turn a carnivore into a vegan. For a double dose, don't miss his follow-up "Gastroanomlies".
Book Review: I Was ROFLMAO From The First Page...
Summary: 5 Stars
and all of the way through the rest of the book. Like previous reviewers, I laughed so hard I had tears rolling down my cheeks. I'm sure my Grandma served up food like this from time to time because I recognized some of it. And I'm very glad she didn't do it too often, you'll see why when you receive your copy of this book. The worrying thing is, I have 3 cookbooks that were given to me in the 1980's (they were published in 1972 and I still have them, I'm 38 now), and the pictures are eerily similar!! This book will make your day. It certainly made a blah day a whole lot brighter. On another note, I first saw this book advertised in a catalog for a different company, and found that Amazon's price is cheaper.