Dan Halpern - Böcker

Bringing together twenty-two writers to discuss eating as more than simple sustenance, editor Daniel Halpern writes in his introduction, this collection is about 'Eating our slice of daily bread, but not for the intake of that slice alone.' These writers reveal the curiosity, romance, faith, and insight that can be as much a part of a meal as any of its edible ingredients; more so, they are windows into the eating lives of a handful of our greatest writers. The contributors include; Rose Macaulay, Wendell Berry, Charles Simic, Joyce Carol Oates, Judith B. Jones, M.F.K. Fisher, Barbara Kafka, Colette, Michael Frank, James Seay, William Corbett, Michael Dorris, Evan Jones, Alice Waters, Paul Schmidt, Francine Prose, Betty Fussell, Alexandre Dumas, Madeline Kaman, Harry Mathews, Charles Lamb, and Edward Steinberg.

A rare occasion to experience privileged information (however tongue-in-cheek) about the identities of their favourite authors in the same place. After seeing a new translation of Jorge Luis Borges' mini-essay "Borges and I" (included here), Halpern asked numerous writers to muse briefly on 'the fictional persona 'behind the scenes", the alter(ed) ego that accompanies creation. He asked some 50 well-known authors - such as Margaret Atwood, Pat Conroy, William Gass, Czeslaw Milosz, James Michener, Joyce Carol Oates, and Cynthia Ozick - to write pieces on this idea. The essays are mostly one- to two-page snapshots and vary widely as to approach. Some are touching, others delightfully silly. Edward Gorey anagrams his name into those of characters including Ogdred Weary. Others, such as Cecil Brown, posit earthier personas: 'He is the proper Negro who is ashamed of me, the nigger'. And still others are reflective: Susan Sontag recalls her longtime disavowal of her work and finally comes to feel that 'the writer is me: not my double' and thus she is 'both Dr. Frankenstein and the monster'.