Published by Atlantic Books, 2012, softcover, 394 pages, condition: new.
At the turn of the last century, two sisters are following very different paths. Twenty-eight-year-old Emily is a CEO of an internet start-up; twenty-three-year-old Jess is a grad student in philosophy, a vegan who rejects the rampant capitalism that surrounds her. Pragmatic Emily is making a fortune in Silicon Valley while capricious Jess works in an antiquarian bookstore. Emily's boyfriend is fantastically successful; Jess's boyfriend is an environmental activist. But as the burst of the Dotcom bubble looms and the falling towers of the World Trade Center cast a dark shadow over America, both sisters are torn between two loves, two lives.
The Cookbook Collector serves up a lively stew of characters: bold young software titans, Berkeley tree-huggers, bibliophiles and a pair of investment savvy rabbis. In an increasingly virtual world, in an era of electronic organizers and onscreen identities, Allegra Goodman reminds us that the one thing that keeps us human is love.
I finished The Cookbook Collector by Allegra Goodman this morning after staying up late, shirking kid duty in the morning in order to read in the tub, and pushing my weekly breakfast with Dad back a half-hour so I could read the last 20 pages. I just loved it. I hadn't read Goodman's previous books, but knew of her reputation, and I liked the cover, so I brought the galley home.Reading at first with my usual caution for the unfamiliar, I was quickly drawn in. As the story unfolded I became more and more involved in the characters, their lives, their predicaments, their preoccupations - to the point that I was blissfully of their world. This is what I read for: the sense that I am within the novel, and when I am done, that book is within me. Needless to say, not all books live up; some I have forgotten as soon as the last page is turned.
The Cookbook Collector, however, will be within me for a long time. When it appears in paperback next year, I will not have forgotten Jessamine & George's enviable romance or Jonathan's betrayal of Emily and the fate that befell him. I so look forward to selling this book to my customers - in hardcover and paperback alike. In the meantime, I may well read it through again, to catch the bits that fell through the cracks of sleepiness or distraction!
