The Red Rooster: The Story of Food and Hustle in Harlem by Marcus Samuelsson - 2016 - A Memoir, Cook Book and a history of Harlem

 

The Red Rooster: The Story of Food and Hustle in Harlem by Marcus Samuelsson - 2016 - A Memoir, Cook Book and a history of Harlem 

Website of The Red Rooster

The Cooking Gene by Michael W. Twitty would be an excellent companion to today’s book.

Anyone with an interest in American food history or contemporary cooking will greatly benefit from this marvelous book. Samuelsson knows and deeply loves the food found in America cooked by descendants of Africa slaves, many of whose grandparents arrived in New York City during the Great Migration.  Harlem, starting in the 1930s, became a primary living area for African Americans in New York City  and later Hispanic people in what was called Spanish Harlem.

The book begins after a very lucid introduction with a detailed account of the spices he includes in his recipies.  He explains where they originated, their flavor and in the case of items not in grocery stores, where you may buy them online. Samuelsson explains that the foods of the African Diaspora 

are derivitive from hundreds of seperate cultures, from  this southern cooking arose.  

There are lots of recipes, which you can cook, in the book.  Samuelsson talks about the operation of his business. He turned it into a place where people from all over could enjoy wonderful food. There are chapters on cocktails, chicken (with his recipe for Chicken and Waffles), on greens, on Sunday brunch,  and a chapter on Puerto Rican food.

The account of President Obama visit is very exciting with a recipe for “Obama’s Short Ribs”.  There is even a recipe for his special hot sauce, try it with a glass of milk nearby.

A history of Harlem emerges in the recipes.

This book is a delicious and delightful.  

“Award-Winning Chef, Restaurateur, Author, and Co-Owner of Red Rooster Harlem

Marcus Samuelsson is the acclaimed chef behind many restaurants worldwide including Red Rooster Harlem, MARCUS Montreal, Red Rooster Overtown in Miami, Streetbird at Yankee Stadium and Marcus at Baha Mar Fish + Chop House in the Bahamas. Samuelsson was the youngest person to ever receive a three-star review from The New York Times and has won multiple James Beard Foundation Awards including Best Chef: New York City. He was tasked with planning and executing the Obama Administration’s first State dinner honoring Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Samuelsson was also honored with curating the team of chefs for the 2022 Met Gala menu where he selected the lineup of three women chefs who represented the rich diversity of American cooking. Samuelsson was crowned champion of television shows Top Chef Masters and Chopped All Stars, and was the winning mentor on ABC’s The Taste. He was also newly named Iron Chef on Netflix’s rebooted Iron Chef: Quest for an Iron Legend. Samuelsson received the James Beard Foundation Award for Outstanding Personality for his TV series titled No Passport Required” from  Marcussamuelsson.com

The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald - 1978 - Introduction 2014 by David Nicholls - Preface by Hermione Lee

 

The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald - 1978 

• Introduction 2014 by David Nicholls - Preface by Hermione Lee

Earlier this Month I posted on At Freddie’s, Penelope Fitzgerald’s novel set in a Children’s theater in London.

Prior to this month The Beginning of Spring was the fourth novel by Penelope Fitzgerald which I have had the great pleasure of reading.   I have posted on her Offshore, then her acknowledged by all masterwork, Blue Flower based on the life of Novalis, one of her numerous short stories, as well as a novel, Human Voices set at the BBC during 1940.  I also read Penelope Fitzgerald:A Life by Hermione Lee.

The Bookshop is set in the imaginary small English Seaside town of Hardborough,said to be a thinly disguised version of Southwold.  Florence Green, a middle aged widow, has decided to open a book store. She picks as her location an abandoned building said to be haunted by a poltergeist.  We go along as she applies for a bank loan, overcomes lots of obstacles and at last opens.  For a year she does well, steadily building clients, starting a lending library, establishing relationships with wholesale book vendors and even hires a teenage helper and a part time bookkeeper. We get glimpses of the lives of numerous village residents.  Basically if your family has not lived their for at least two hundred years you are considered a  new arrival.

Then the very influential wealthy Mrs Gamart decides she wants to start a cultural center using the bookstore property. Her nephew, member of parliament for the area, gets a bill passed which allows the town to force Mrs Green to sell her property to be used for the cultural center. Sadly Mrs Green is evicted.

The novel focuses on class differences, snobbery and micro aggressions perpetrated on Mrs Green as well as the love of some residents for her store and for books.  It was a lot of fun learning what happened when she displayed Lolita in the window of her store.

The Bookshop  was short listed for The Booker 

Prize.

I greatly enjoyed the Bookshop . It is for sale as a Kindle for $1.95.

PENELOPE FITZGERALD (1916–2000) was one of the most elegant and distinctive voices in British fiction. She won the 

Circle Award in fiction for The Blue Flower, the Booker Prize for Offshore, and three of her novels—The Bookshop, The Gate of Angels, and The Beginning of Spring—were short-listed for the Booker Prize.

Dineh- An Autobiographical Novel by Ida Maze - 1939-translated from the Yiddish by Yermiyahu Ahron Taub - 2022 with “Russia and Beyond: On the Art and Life of Ida Maze” An Afterword by Yermiyahu Ahron Taub

 

Dineh- An Autobiographical Novel by Ida Maze - 1939-translated from the Yiddish by Yermiyahu Ahron Taub - 2022

with “Russia and Beyond: On the Art and Life of Ida Maze” An Afterword by Yermiyahu Ahron Taub

Gateway to Yiddish Literature on The Reading Life 

Dineh was completed in 1939 but first published in 1970 in Yiddish 

The Jewish Women’s Archive Biography of Ida Maze

Ida Maze

Ida Zhukovsky

July 9, 1893

Ugli, Belarus, Russian Empire

In 1907 with her family she emigrated to New York City, in 1908 they relocated to Montreal where she spent the rest of her life.

Died June 13, 1962 in Montreal

Dineh- An Autobiographical Novel by Ida Maze - 1939-translated from the Yiddish by Yermiyahu Ahron Taub - 2022

with “Russia and Beyond: On the Art and Life of Ida Maze” An Afterword by Yermiyahu Ahron Taub

Dineh was completed in 1939 but first published in 1970 in Yiddish 

Ida Maze

Ida Zhukovsky

July 9, 1893

Ugli, Belarus, Russian Empire

In 1907 with her family she emigrated to New York City, in 1908 they relocated to Montreal where she spent the rest of her life.

Died June 13, 1962 in Montreal

Dineh is set in what Is now Belarus in the 1910s.  Told in the first person it Is a bildungsroman of a young girl growing up in a Jewish community.  It is deeply felt account of her love for her family, nature and expanding her knowledge of Jewish tradition, normally more considered a subject for boys.  

In a way it Is a tale of dreams and dread of emigration to America.  Things get increasingly worse for Jews with pograms, a ban on landownership.  The turning of some toward anti-Tsarist ideology leads to executions, Siberia and ever increasing fear of the future.  One tragic thing after another does happen.  People emigrate to New York City, some prosper, some hate living there and return home.  Letters from emigres are a very big factor in the novel.

“Born Hayeh Zukofsky in 1893 in the village of Ugli, White Russia, Ida Maze emigrated ca. 1907 and eventually settled in Montreal, Quebec. She was renowned for her work on behalf of other Yiddish writers. In addition to Dineh, Maze authored four books of poetry, A mame (A Mother; 1931), Lider far kinder (Poems for Children; 1936), Naye lider (New Poems; 1941), and Vaksn mayne kinderlekh: muter un kinder-lider (My Children Grow: Mother and Children's Poems; 1954), which was awarded the prize in children's literature by the Congress for Jewish Culture in 1955. Ida Maze died in 1962.

Yermiyahu Ahron Taub is the author of The Insatiable Psalm (Hershey, Pa.: Wind River Press, 2005). His English and Yiddish poems, one of which was nominated for a Pushcart Prize,have appeared in numerous publications, including The Forward, Kennesaw Review, Lily, and Prairie Schooner. He was honored by the Museum of Jewish Heritage as one of New York's best emerging Jewish artists. A longtime resident of Brooklyn, New York, he now lives in Washington, D.C. “ from   Amazon 

Dineh is a valuable edition to Yiddish literature.

Mel Ulm

American Gods - A Novel - by Neil Gaiman - 2001- tenth anniversary edition 2011 with a new introduction - 425 Pages

American Gods - A Novel - by Neil Gaiman - 2001- tenth anniversary edition 2011 with a new introduction - 425 Pages

Winner of The 2002 Hugo Award for Best Novel,Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel and The Nébula Award for Best Novel

My feeling on American Gods is a mixture of delight and boredom.  The premise of the novel is that immigrants to America brought with them the Gods they believed in back home.  Gods require worshippers to thrive or even much endure.  As time went on the grandchildren of the immigrants lost all interest, the priests of the old Gods died.  By the 21th 

century, where the plot is set, Americans have new Gods like TV, cell phones, and the internet. The old Gods had to figure out How to live.

The plot is structured as a journey across America by an ex-convict, who goes by ‘Shadow, out after three years for a  bank robbery.  Just before he is released his wife is killed in a car accident in the company of his best friend who was going to hire him at his gym.  He meets a strange man who knows all about him, he calls himself “Wednesday”, who offers him a job. It turns out Wednesday is an ancient Norse God.  I found the journey across America to fade in interest as it dragged on.  I was fascinated by the descriptions of all the old Gods from Europe, Asia and Africa stayed on after their followers lost interest in them.  For this I was glad I read American Gods.

Parents should know there are several x-rated sex scenes between the living and the dead as well as with dieties and spirits.

“Neil Gaiman is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of more than twenty books, including Norse Mythology, Neverwhere, and The Graveyard Book. Among his numerous literary awards are the Newbery and Carnegie medals, and the Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy, and Will Eisner awards. He is a Professor in the Arts at Bard” . From Amazon 

 

At Freddie’s by Penelope Fitzgerald- 1981 - 192 pages. With a preface by Hermione Lee and an introduction by Simon Callow - 2013

 

At Freddie’s by Penelope Fitzgerald- 1981 - 192 pages. With a preface by Hermione Lee and an introduction by Simon Callow - 2013 

Prior to this month The Beginning of Spring was the fourth novel by Penelope Fitzgerald which I have had the great pleasure of reading.   I have posted on her Offshore, then her acknowledged by all masterwork, Blue Flower based on the life of Novalis, one of her numerous short stories, as well as a novel, Human Voices set at the BBC during 1940.  I also read Penelope Fitzgerald:A Life by Hermione Lee.

PENELOPE FITZGERALD (1916–2000) was one of the most elegant and distinctive voices in British fiction. She won the 

Circle Award in fiction for The Blue Flower, the Booker Prize for Offshore, and three of her novels—The Bookshop, The Gate of Angels, and The Beginning of Spring—were short-listed for the Booker Prize.

At Freddie’s is set in London in 1962 centered on a theater for children.  Freddie is the long time manager.  The theater focuses on plays by Shakespeare even though the greatest demand for child actors is for commercials, TV and movies.  Freddie, a woman past her youth but still quite formidable, fends of bill collectors, male actors with egos, unions, theater critics, benefactors and deals with her employees. Freddie, Freddie Wentworth, is completely devoted to the theater.  

She lives at the theater in a dusty room that smells of moth balls She never married, has no children and as far as we know has never had any romantic entanglements . The theater gets help from adult actors and other theaters.  The staff includes an unskilled handy man, a dresser that may possibly have some malevolent tendencies.  English law requires that students enrolled at the theater have a certain amount of class room teaching.  Freddie hires two teachers, both from Northern Ireland.  The young students are egomaniacal and mendacious, lying being a theatrical necessity.  

At Freddie’s shifts between despair and comedy.  I very much enjoyed the narrative observations.  I felt I was there at Freddie’s theater backstage. 

I hope to read her novel The Bookshop this year.

Mel Ulm

The People Immortal by Vasily Grossman - first published 1942- translated from Russian by Robert and Elizabeth Chandler - 2022 - to be published by The New York Review of Books September 22, 2022

 

The People Immortal by Vasily Grossman - first published 1942- translated from Russian by Robert and Elizabeth Chandler - 2022 - to be published by The New York Review of Books September 22, 2022 - 252 pages

Vasily Grossman 

Born: December 12, 1905, Berdychiv, Ukraine

Stalingrad- first published in Russia in 1952- published translated into English by Robert Chandler and Elizabeth Chandler - 2019

Life and Fate - 1960- translated by Robert Chandler-2006-considered his masterwork 

His WW Two  reporting has been collected -The Road: Stories, Journalism, and Essays, translated by Robert and Elizabeth Chandler with Olga Mukovnikova, commentary and notes by Robert Chandler with Yury Bit-Yunan, afterword by Fyodor Guber, New York, New York Review Books, 2010, ISB

Died: September 14, 1964, Moscow, Russia 

The People Immortal is set during the catastrophic for Russia first few months of the German invasion of the country.  It centers on a Russian army battalion whose mission is to, at any cost, slow the advancing Germans.  Through the eyes of Russians ranging from privates who want only to go home to Generals with deep love for the motherland Grossman brings the Russian experience vividly to life.  Germans are portrayed as brutal killers without a shred of humanity.  Nazis are Germans who have never heard of Goethe or Beethoven but worship Hitler.

For me the best part of this marvelous work were the many conversations. 

Julia Volohova has contributed an informative introduction and afterword.

Mel Ulm

The Reading Life Review - July 2022

The Reading Life is a multicultural

book blog, committed to Literary Globalism . 

  Our posts have been read over 6.7 milion times.  Our readers range from scholars from The Vatican Library,MacArthur Genius Grant Winners, publishing industry professionals to teenage   book lovers.  

Short Stories, Irish literature, Classics, Modern Fiction, Contemporary Literary Fiction, The Japanese Novel, Post Colonial Asian Fiction, The Legacy of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and quality Historical Novels are Among our Interests.

Column one

1. Ivan Bunin- Russian Émigré to Paris. Nobel Prize 1933
2. Nicholas Underhill - USA- Author Yiddish Paris- first appearance on The Reading Life
3. Erika Robuck - USA - author of seven works of historical fiction of which I have read six

Column two

1. Helen Rappaport- USA - author of After the Romanovs- first appearance on The Reading Life
2. Shasha Chorny - Russian Émigré to Paris - prolific multi-genre writer - first appearance on The Reading Life

Column three

1. Ann Patchett- USA - historical fiction and marvelous essays
2. Kristin Hannah - USA - author of the Nightingale and 23 other books. First appearance on The Reading Life

In July five works by Americans were featured and two by Russians who emigrated to France after the Revolution. Two writers, the Russians, are deceased, four are women, three men.  Four writers were first featured in July.

Blog Stats

There are has been  6,737,005 pages views since inception.  There are 4099 posts on line. The most frequently read posts are on short stories by authors from India and the Philippines 

Top Home countries of visitors

1. USA
2. India 
3. Netherlands 
4. Russia 
5. Canada 
6. Philippines 
7. United King
8. Germany 
9. France

In July I read these works but did not post on them

1. The Great Divorce by Kelly Link. 2006- included in Magic for Beginners - A Short Story 
2. A Cold Autumn by Ivan Bunin - 1944 - a Short Story
3. The Moment Nothing Changed by Ann Pratchett - an essay. 2022
4. Living and Dying with Marcel Proust by Christopher Pendergast 
5. Nazi Islamists and the Making of the Modern Middle East by Barry Rubin and Wolfgang G. Schwanitz.

For the eighth year I participated in Paris in July for which I read:

1. Yiddish Paris by Nicholas Underwood - 2022
2. After the Romanovs- Russian Exiles in Paris from the Belle Époque to Revolution and War by Helen Rappaport - 2022
3. “Late Hour” -A Set in Paris Short Story by Ivan Bunin - 1938- translated by David Humphries -included in The Gentleman from San Francisco and other Stories-- 
4. The Paris Tattoo” - An Essay by Ann Patchett - from her essay collection These Precious Days- 2022
5. “Spindleshanks” - a set in Paris Short story by Shasha Chorny - 1932- a Russian Emirgé
6. The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah - 2015

The Reading Life entered year 14 on July 9, 2022