cover, index, 254 pages, condition: new.
Celebrated British provocateur and Vanity Fair columnist A.A. Gill traverses the Atlantic to become the freshest chronicler of American identity in recent memory. With a fiery temper, a sharp-tongued wit, and an insatiable curiosity to figure out what makes more than 300 million of the worlds population tick, Gill traces the history and logic of our nations habits, collecting wild stories and startling facts along the way. From Colorado, where he meets a local vegetation expert and learns which flowers were in Pocahontass nuptial bouquet, to Kentucky, where he visits the Creationist Museum and drinks moonshine with a hog farmer, and to Harlem, where he misses a turn and stumbles into the wrong barbershop for a once-in-a-lifetime haircut, Gill embarks on a tour of not only the nations landscape but also its psyche, playing adventurer, philosopher, statistician, and raconteur all at once. In inimitable fashion he explains why pressing a button in a Manhattan elevator means entering a social contract of American etiquette and inverting conventional hierarchies of space; why browsing through Playboy centerfolds becomes the perfect litmus test for a generations political views; and how Hollywood is the metaphysical marketplace for movies, the place where Americans are sold on American romance and taught how to dream the American dream. Weaving together a tapestry of historical erudition and outrageous anecdotes, Gill ultimately captures the scope and spirit of a nation that started off as a conceptual experiment and became a political, scientific, and cultural fortress. This humorous and revelatory book shows us why we are who we are by transforming ordinary experiences into extraordinary lessons and promising to never let us look in the mirror the same way again.
A. A. Gill is the author of books on two of London's most famous restaurants, The Ivy and Le Caprice, a travel book, A. A. Gill is Away and most recently, The Angry Island. He is the TV and restaurant critic for the Sunday Times and is a contributing editor to GQ, Vanity Fair and Australian Gourmet Traveller magazines. He lives in London and spends much of his year travelling. Previously at Langan's Brasserie and Joe Allen respectively, Chris Corbin and Jeremy King are probably still best known as the restaurateurs behind the celebrity-studded Caprice and The Ivy. Their Caprice Holdings Company also resurrected J. Sheekey, the seafood restaurant in the heart of London's theatre district. After selling the group in 1998 for over GBP 13 million, they waited patiently for exactly the right premises to come along for their concept of a 'grand cafe' for London. The Wolseley opened in 2003 and immediately became the place to see and be seen. In a highly varied career, Lewis Esson, as well as having run both the Pan Bookshop and a Mayfair delicatessen, is recognized as one of the country's most experienced editors of food books. He is also author or co-author of several books, including The Gate Vegetarian Cookbook (with Adrian and Michael Daniel), Cowboys & Cookouts: A Taste of the Old West, Quick Cuisine and Fast Food for Friends (both with Marie-Pierre Moine and Henrietta Green), and was Contributing Editor of the English language edition of Larousse Pratique. Lewis contributes occasionally to magazines such as Waitrose Seasons, BBC Good Food and Olive, and is currently Chairman of the Guild of Food Writers.
