"No Rhyme or Reason - What I'd Read If I Could Read Anything" by Mr. Stacy Kuiack

Medium Raw by Anthony Bourdain

Bourdain isn’t the kind of guy I’d want to go on a three day road trip with, but I’d sure like to have dinner with him and talk shit about the food industry. I think any longer than three hours and the endless barrage of allusions and metaphors would force me to cross the median into oncoming traffic. As the first rock star of food, Bourdain writes about food like no other; and almost without question, we believe him.

I often wonder how much we see of Bourdain is his character and what is caricature; the braggadocio, the heroin, the culinary concubines. He lived a life that would have killed most of us and he’s bragging about it. Bourdain may be self-absorbed, but he’s certainly not introverted; his personality resonates with readers. He gets away with being a prick because he lets you in on the joke – you feel like you’re getting the real deal.

Medium Raw glosses over Bourdain’s early days because those sordid tales can be found in his first big hit, Kitchen Confidential. His latest book picks up after fame found him, taking us through his divorce, the Caribbean meltdowns and his suicidal tendencies. He recounts his reckless swashbuckling with coked-up trust-fund brats and his eventual second marriage to an Italian who appears to have his number. Bourdain is disarmingly transparent and self-aware throughout the book and it works like a charm.

Bourdain has mastered the art of cynicism to such a great extent that he can sweet talk a story about dancing with his young daughter out of one side of his mouth while he tears bloody strips off Alice Waters (the self-proclaimed “mother” of Slow Food) with the other. He has an opinion on everyone and everything and 99% of the time he’s just saying what we’re all thinking – notions of “right” or “wrong” become subjective. This makes him just like me; except taller . . . and he’s allowed to smoke in Samantha’s car. No wonder I liked this book.