Rating: 
Summary: Sub-plot/Plot never gets developed
Review: Though I enjoyed the author's descriptive style and it started with an interesting premise, my desire to read this book came to a grinding halt when the sub-plot entered the story and was never developed. I would have been more interested to read about his life as a killer, than to read the never ending descriptions in parentheses. I just became frustrated and had to force myself to finish the book. An excellent idea that didn't quite hit the mark. It hasn't turned me off his work forever though, and I'll probably pick up his next book and see how it compares to his first attempt.
Rating: 
Summary: Hannibal Lecter meets a "Year in Provence"
Review: This was a great beach read and a great book for anyone who prides himself on obscure vocabulary. I liked the well-developed protagonist and enjoyed the author's way of drawing the reader into the protagonist's mind. Very subltle; very funny.
Rating:
Summary: A toadstool, decorated, for a special guest's breakfast
Review: The novel, despite its brilliance,only a metaphor for itself.The real crime is a kind of suicide. Succumbing to fear of exposure, the author mutes what he once loved with a little gag.
Rating: 
Summary: A psycho by any other name would kill just the same.
Review: Yes, our narrator is droll. Yes, he's possessed of more knowledge than the staffs of Encyclopedia Britannica and the Library of Congress put together. And he's witty, too.
But he's an icicle. His chill is at first refreshing, but then numbing. Through all the recipes, through all the elitist opinions on absolutely everything (many of which are piercing and hilarious both) he remains below freezing. And he drops hints about his psychopathic activities so loudly they'd wake his murdered victims. The cultured killer is far from a novel concept, and hardly concept enough for a novel. All right already, some killers are well-educated and charming. I kept wondering, what does our narrator care for? What drives him, what is he fighting for? But he remained so wholly impenetrable, so completely without a human inner life, that boredom fell upon me. The effort to discern the vaguest of human qualities in our narrator having all but exhausted me, I turned to the other people he observes. Needless to say, the clinical precision with which he views the world leaves those in his sight devoid of warmth.
One could get the same impression left by this book in a fraction of the time by listening to "Murder by Numbers" by the Police on their album "Synchronicity." To the point, clever, and great cymbal-work by Copeland.
Alternately, you could take the advice of the Talking Heads:
Psycho killer . . . Run run run, run run run away.
Rating: 
Summary: Answer the Following...
Review: Do you read 'Gourmet' magazine for the interviews? Do you shop for wine for fun in your spare time? Is your wine cellar better stocked than your library? Are your two favorite words: 'foie gras?' Do you find yourself in heated arguments about the medicinal value of calvados? Do you have a cast-iron skillet that you consider a member of the family? If you answered 'yes' to any of these questions, you must read John Lanchester's 'The Debt to Pleaure'. It's more entertaining and sinister than you might expect of a novel obsessed with the sensuousness of food, but it's a must for the committed gourmand. You'll learn more about being a gourmet than you thought possible
Rating:
Summary: The best of the food-literature genre
Review: Sarcasm and snobbery are not the first things that leap into mind when reading a cookbook, but then this is not, as Lanchester's book says, "an ordinary cookbook". It's principal character with the unlikely name of Tarquin Winot displays all at once his genius, his command of history, literature, science and cooking as well as his humorous and utter contempt for others in this outstanding voyage across Europe and into the depths of evil.
It starts fairly tamely, a la "Like Water For Chocolate," telling a recipe the long way through paragraphs of storytelling. But it more than tells a story; it dives into longwinded, sort-of correct and hilarious discourses into every possible subject that would make Benjamin Franklin proud. The sort-of-correctness of each anecdote becomes more and more suspect as Winot hints increasingly at a far more sinister side. His character facade changes as often as his disguises even as each recipe is more delicious and more detailed than the last. While the crowding genre of food-mystery/food-love/food-anything books continues to swell, the Debt to Pleasure stand out for the depth of Winot character, his brilliance, his evil, and ultimately, his fragility.
Rating:
Summary: A Diabolicaly Delicious Treat
Review: This is a book that should appeal to many types: the food connaiseur, the mystery lover, the "info-maniac". The rule of thumb while reading this book is to never trust your first impressions...even the ripe, dewy peach on the book cover has a hidden meaning. Tarquin Winot, the narrator, takes the reader on a lush and sensuous journey through the world of food, travel and his own twisted perception of those around him. As the story unfolds and the reader becomes more involved, Tarquin's voluptous descriptions and cutting insights take on a sinister light and an unlikely tale slowly begins to surface. Julia Childe meets De Sade? You tell me....
Rating:
Summary: The Attraction of Revulsion
Review: If the reader of A Debt to Pleasure, by John Lanchester, finds him or herself holding the book away from the face while keeping one eye clearly open upon whatever deliciously subverted idea is being expounded by the narrator...be not surprised. This book embodies the notion that that which is most repulsive can also be most attractive. And it is this superior accomplishment (and recognition of that element of human nature) that makes The Debt to Pleasure one of the best books of this decade.
Folded within the conceit of a year's worth of menus as determined by the needs of each season, we watch in silent astonishment while narrator Tarquin Winot cunningly reveals a life which, from boyhood, is marked by the unexpected demise of family, friends and acquaintances. And while, at first, we cautiously extend our sympathy to Winot, at the same time we wickedly delight in his total and thorough near-psychopathic egoism, a psycho-centric approach to life that, quite simply, allows no equal.
And, as the story reachs its climax, we realize we will not be treated to any kind of denouement, any satisfactory end to the tale we have been told. And in this knowledge, we are left only with the bitter taste of helplessness, perhaps Lanchester's greatest accomplishment. Read this book. Learn from its pages. And understand that the ingredients left unstated may be the most crucial of all.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful to hold, delicious to read, and yet a page turner.
Review: An enjoyable view of life as seen through the metaphor of food and everything surrounding food. Good writing ostensibly by and about an ascerbic gourmet who knows his morels. Great fun. And the book itself is a joy to look at and to hold - it is really beautiful
Rating:
Summary: a master chef's secrets
Review: 'The Debt to Pleasure' is a case of "what you see ain't necessary what you get". It starts off with a pompous master chef from England telling us about how to prepare fine French delicacies while he is enroute to France from England. However one soon realises that it's not the recipes which are of main importance but rather the cunning little detours he takes when he slips in a few words about his life. We soon realise this bore has a hidden mean streak. The book matures into a dark comedy - I thoroughly enjoyed it. Bottom line: a fast, enjoyable read for all - especially those fans of French cuisine. I also recommend John Lanchester's second novel, 'Mr Phillips'.
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