In a small village, a man named Ambrosio experiments and works to revive an old family recipe, a cheese his father remembers from his youth. What he creates is something so extraordinary that it wins awards and turns heads. In a college in the US, another man edits a newsletter for a local deli and becomes acquainted with the story of the world’s greatest cheese. Later, when he has a chance, he follows his heart to a small village in Spain to learn more about the cheese and the story he uncovers is so full of twists and turns that he writes a book about it.
This has been on my TBR for awhile because my friend E sent it to me with a note that said something to the effect of, “You also like cheese and Spain, so you’ll think this is an interesting story. But, you’re also not going to like the narrator.” She wasn’t wrong. I perhaps have a bit of sympathy for the author who idealizes this artisanal cheese maker and his integrity, along with the slow-paced small village life, but he’s not my fave. I get looking at the world around you, especially right now, and finding it wanting. But I’m not sure the solution is to quit the world and move to a small village in Spain to write a one-sided story about a very dramatic situation.
So, this book has a lot of ups and downs. The cheese bit was very interesting. The book writing bit was less so. For an author who has done some journalism, the approach he takes to the subject matter was annoying. His writing is fine, tight. The prose kept me interested. But the book has so many footnotes and that drove me mad. I get that stylistically that mimicked Castilian conversation with its many digressions but it did nothing for me. If I hadn’t decided early in the reading that I would not be defeated by this book, I would have DNF’d it for the footnotes alone. (Yes, apparently sometimes in my mind book reading is a game you can lose by not reading. And now I’m digressing. At least this isn’t a footnote?)
The descriptions of Spain and the cheese making process were awesome. But, the descriptions of writers block and interviewing and trying to be Spanish were not.
When you make it through both types of descriptions, you finally get into some of the betrayal and… no spoilers but the book doesn’t have a real ending. It sort of just… loses steam. This is maybe what happens when you go searching for the source of a myth? You find reality and it is long and rambling and stupid and you aren’t sure where something truly ends and the next thing begins.
Anyway, this one is a meh for me. I wouldn’t recommend it. it I also wouldn’t stop you from reading it. If you think you might be interested, let me know and you can have my copy.
2 Women, So Many Books 