How to Cook a Tart

Rating:
Summary: Decadent, but a bit dumb
Review: Cookbook author Jasmine March is a pleasant, rotund woman. "Of all the herbs, Jasmine thought, basil was her soul mate." The story begins in Jasmine's kitchen where she finds a young girl dead on her kitchen floor, a brownie stuffed in her mouth. Jasmine's main concern is the well being of her favorite rolling pin. The rest is a flashback leading up to the present with an over-the-top conclusion.

Jasmine's motto: To feast well is the best revenge. Too bad her publisher doesn't agree, feeling that Jasmine's latest cookbook had more fat content than a McDonald's deep-fryer. In a diet-obsessed world, Jasmine struggles to find a home for her unique and decadent recipes, full of rich butter creams, chocolates, sauces, everything we as a society try to avoid rather than indulge. Jasmine and her husband Daniel are pushing 40 and seemingly happy, until Daniel begins an affair with one of his acting students, Tina, a young, skinny disciple of the Zone diet. Jasmine's 16-year-old daughter Careme, also nothing like her mother, is an anorexic with a pet python, obsessed with losing her virginity. She finally meets a potential candidate who's actually attracted to her fat mother!

Nina Killham's debut novel is enjoyable only because of the occasional humor, but mostly for its mouth-watering food content, the food we all want but avoid like the plague. But reading about rich food is safe and fun: it doesn't affect the width of one's waistline! The story itself moves along smoothly until the ending, which was a bit too outrageous for me. If you're desperate to read something, anything, while waiting for a better book to become available, ok then.

Rating:
Summary: Not for the squeemish.
Review: I found this to be a good book. It was very well written. I am not one to give away the end of a book, but I would like to warn any prospective readers that the last few chapters are NOT for the squeemish as they contain cannibalism.

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining by Cooking
Review: I liked HOW TO COOK A TART, so much so that I felt cheated that there wasn't more to it. Certainly, the food descriptions may be the best ever written for a non-cookbook, and the story is clever.

Still, as it reaches its too-short ending, TART seems much like a pastiche, with a resolution far too reminiscent of Roald Dahl's famous murder mystery, interconnected relationships that are both implausible and derivative of Dickens in their frequency, and a final act of generosity between the spouses that smacks of O. Henry's "Gift of the Magi."

Various fascinating subplots remain unexplored and unresolved, barely more than hints, particularly regarding the television show and the arrest, and how the latter impacts the former. (No, I'll give away no other details.)

Nina Killham is a marvelous author. I look forward to her next novel, with the hope that she will correct these types of conceptual flaws in future stories.

Rating:
Summary: good food, bad plot
Review: Killham is a good writer. Her character, Jasmine March, is a good cook. The writing about food is incredible, and in between the delectable descriptions lies a relationship and a family that sports real problems, true tests. The husband rebels against his butter-and-fat-lovin' wife with a lover more adept with sprouts and no-fat dressing than taste. I thought the wonderful affair with the tofu-eating mistress was smack-on. Jasmine's daughter is rebellious, too. She doesn't want to eat a damn thing, and stupidly refuses all of her mother's lip-smacking concoctions.

Of course Mr. March desires his gourmet cook wife -- don't we all??! If only Killham had left the plot to the mutual dalliances between the husband and wife and left the implausible ending out of it, it would have been that much more satisfying, the book that much more tight. The book rang true (and was serious screenplay material) up until the silly ending, which tried in vain to wrap things up in a hurry. I couldn't imagine the wife or daughter doing any of the things they did. The daughter wasn't enough of a rebel to do what she did in the end -- and Jasmine losing control over meal preparations? Preposterous! It would have been much more of a sting (and more in keeping with the plot) to discover that Tina had left town with the fat neighbor's husband -- surely she was just on a vendetta to snare husbands away from their fat wives? That would have left the Marches to lovingly reconcile, and lick their wounds (as well as their plates). Perhaps that would have been too formulaic, but the ending in my opinion just didn't belong.

Another very cool thing overlooked could have been a recipe page with the dishes Jasmine prepared for her husband's birthday. I was almost sort of looking for recipes and was a bit disappointed.

Big kudos for the creativity, the food writing and Jasmine. Bronx cheers for the ending.

Rating:
Summary: Tasty...Tangy!
Review: Nina Killham's "How to Cook a Tart" is a superb novel that showcases its author's biting wit and firm command of the English language. While a fantastical journey dripping in descriptive detail, "Tart" manages to grip its audience through its realistic characters and devilish humor. What makes this novel so incredible is its simple, yet tantalizingly delicious diction and sex appeal. You'll be amazed to find yourself laughing, gasping, and screaming simultaneously from one page to the next. Fans of dark comedies and satires, rejoice!

"Tart's" central character is middle-aged Jasmine March, a rotund cookbook author with more problems than you can shake a stick at. In a world obsessed with fad diets, Jasmine vows to get everyone hooked on her favorite delicacy--fat--no matter what it takes. Unsurprisingly, she meets opposition in the forms of her irritable agent, detox-worshipping food fellows, and her anorexic daughter who claims to live on air. The only person who seems to be on Jasmine's side is her husband, Daniel...Except, well, for the fact that he's sleeping with one of his acting students. And finally, what is Jasmine to do about the dead body in her kitchen, chocolatey brownie stuffed in its mouth? You'll need to read it to find out all of the bizarre details.

"How to Cook a Tart" is a must-read for men and women of all ages. It's perfect for the beach or a weekend getaway. Because of its powerful ability to entertain, I finished it in a matter of days.

Sweet and saucy at the same time, I can just imagine this book becoming a motion picture one day!

Rating:
Summary: A deliciously warped delicacy
Review: The characters were portrayed excellently, and it was a brilliant satire of our skinniness-obsessed society. Excellent, but I took a star off for the morbid ending, which I could have lived without. Still, a well-executed and entertaining piece of fiction

Rating:
Summary: Delivers on its promise!
Review: This is a book meant to be savored. Hold the rich raspberry, satin paper covered book in your hand and study the title. "How to Cook a Tart." ::What kind of a tart?:: Well, in the first sentence, we have a dead floozy on Jasmine's kitchen floor. ::Oh, THAT kind of tart.::

If you pay attention, every page has wonderful culinary wit and sly references to both the title and ending. Poor Jasmine is caught in a comedic web that doesn't have her so much cooking the tart, as, well--gee, it just isn't her fault!

This is not a Chianti moment. I definitely recommend a robust Pinot Noir with this book!

Rating:
Summary: Not bad, not great
Review: While I enjoyed this book, I found parts to be improbable especially the ending which I was really disappointed with. However, the author's understanding of cooking and food were amazing.