When my son was taking honors English in 6th grade, he had a reading list of books from which to choose. I was struck by one of the selections: any book by Dick Francis.
At the time I had not read a book by Mr. Francis and thought he was "just another writer of pop fiction." Now that I have read all of his books including the last "Dead Heat" I understand the reason my son's teacher, a lover of books, gave the students the chance to read a Dick Francis book.
I think I feel as fond of Francis' books as Martha does McBain's.
This neat little book is the story of Max Moreton, a culinary star, who gets caught up in a web of international portions.
Martha has me dog-earing passages:
from page 49: "..it appeared to me because there was nothing nw to report and they had to fill the time somehow...Middle East experts were wheeled in to the studio to make endless, meaningless comments about a speculative theory about which they had no facts or evidence.....
from page 51: "Karl Marx stated in 1844 that religion was the opium of the people, but nowadays sport in general, and soccer in particular, had taken over that mantle."
from page 75: "Ideally main courses should be ready ten minutes after the starters have been cleared from the table, or, if no starters are ordered, within twenty-eight minutes of the order arriving in the kitchen. ...if a customer was kept waiting for longer than he or she thought reasonable, it didn't matter how good the food tasted when it arrived, only the wait would be remembered and not the flavors."
from page 107: "on a regular basis, (patrons) need to be comfortable rather than challenged, and they want their food predictable rather an experimental."
from page 134: "Isn't music described as food for the soul? ...The quote is actually about passion. There's sure no passion in the human soul, but finds its food in music....I can't remember who said it or even what it means, but it was carved on a wooden plaque in the hallway at my music school."
TO BE CONTINUED....I JUST REALIZED HOW VERY HUNGRY I AM
