Toast: The Story of a Boy's Hunger

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Summary: A bittersweet biography.
Review: Nigel Slater is a renowed TV and published Chef in my country.
His work is consumed with all the gusto of those who are considered his wise contemparies. If you are not familair with him he is every bit as inspiring and knowledgable as the wonderful Nigella Lawson, (How to be a Domestic Godess).
Here he tells us of his childhood in 1960's Birmingham (UK) and each stage of his development is either a delicious recipe or a daliance with some foul tasting horror. His delicious writing being every bit as adept at tale telling as it is at sorting a dinner party for 12.
The story is passionate and animated as the boy becomes the man, struggling to understand what life has dealt him and trying to express emotions through culinary creation.
This novel is an accurate, social historic depiction of England in the 1960's. A pre-diverse culture England which was still shaking off the last remains of Victorian values and which had yet to let Migrant cultures permeate.
Nigel stirred my emotions and memories often here, being a British child of the same decade, this is not to say you will not find enjoyment here if you don't identify with his world.
The themes are powerful and fairly universal, though the upbringing and world of such repressed emotion, cast iron secrets and children being seen but not heard is very British, the experience of loss, marginalisation, anger, grief, emerging sexuality, rebeliion and the wicked step parent are all here.
And always there is the food, each chapter begins with his feelings for a foodstuff (the chapters are small and punchy and feel like a seductive and greedy secret, "I'll just have one more before I put it down!") and this is exquisitely played off against his feelings for a time, place or person.
This book is really worth a shot, it has done biography in a different and inspired way, it also feels and tastes, bittersweet; a comfort and sad lonely tale all at once.

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Summary: So many flavors, so many feelings
Review: Beautiful, funny, sad coming-of-age story, a swirl of flavors and emotions in an England in transition, where the type of chocolate bar you ate defined who you were, and the hippies were still threatening and terrifying for the middle class, stiff upper lip kind. I enjoyed it immensely and praise the ability of the author in making this reading almost an olfactory and savoring experience. The story is almost too predictable, and maybe not so important as the way in which food, memories and emotions are strictly connected.

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Summary: Terrific book for those who grew up in the 60's
Review: I had never heard of Nigel Slater before seeing this book in the bookstore. I am now a die-hard fan of the man. His writing is funny, eloquent, moving and engrossing. As a child of abuse myself I resonated with what Nigel had to say about feeling alienated and not welcomed in his own home. Relating food as an anchoring influence in his life is done so powerfully and effectively, that even though I was unfamiliar with many of the British items, it didn't matter. Full marks for this brilliant book.

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Summary: Absolutely Brilliant & Touching!
Review: I just heard the interview with Nigel on NPR, and I am sending this out for Christmas presents this year. What a wonderful, colorful, beautifully written story. To Kimberly, who "got bored" with this, I say "get some class." She obviously has NO taste, and being from Virginia, insults the obviously waning intellegence of southern people. If her hobby is writing reviews for Amazon, I say, YOU are boring, Kim, and your taste in books is horrendous. This is one of the best foodie/childhood memory books ever. It's just tremendously delightful. It's highly recommended by me and several others who never grew up in the UK - or in the 60's. And, I am from Texas, originally.

Rating:
Summary: ran out of steam
Review: I'd never heard of Nigel Slater before but when I saw this book it looked interesting and since I like foodie memoirs I bought it. Most of the book is okay. Young Nigel had a genuine trauma in his childhood. Imagine being a horribly spoiled child and then suddenly finding yourself without the one person who loved you the most. Nigel's mother spends most of the book dying and because Slater wrote the book from his perspective as a child he spends most of the book being oblivous to her condition. Later after his mother's death poor little Nigel can't figure out why his father is so nice to the family housekeeper. Before he knows it his father marries the housekeeper and the rest of the book is about Nigel being pushed further and further away from his dad's heart. It's sort of a Cinderella story without the happy ending. This should be deeply moving stuff but it isn't. You won'treally like little Nigel (he was bratty and snobbish) and frankly I found myself cheering for the clever lowerclass housekeeper. About half way through the book I got bored. The book is just plain dreary.

Rating:
Summary: A scooby snack
Review: In the intro to this book Slater says he got lots of mail from people saying 'this book is about my childhood'. Well, duh, of course it is. Anyone who is British (as I am) and is under 45 will have savoured exactly the same brands of chocolate, tea, pies etc etc and will have experienced the class snobbery and general coldness of the upper middle classes that were Slater's parents.

It is a pleasant enough read, showing how food replaced affection in Slater's lonely childhood. But in the end it leaves you wanting more. He doesn't talk about his feelings properly and skims over stuff about his sexuality. In the end you are left with a hunger, to know more about this boy. Ultimately unsatisfying.

Rating:
Summary: Starts off boring, ends more enjoyable
Review: Nigel Slater begins his book in his introduction by stating that he is a very private person. Maybe he should have thought twice before writing an autobiography. The first half of the book seems to be just a list of foods and the memories he associates with these foods, which is fine except people want to know more than just a list of foods and events occuring in one's life. Such things like how he felt emotionally, what he thought about these events, what did he learn, etc. are things that make people unique, in how they deal with life's happenings, and will want the reader to learn more about the author and continue reading. Halfway through the book, I found myself wanting to throw the book aside, being bored beyond bored, and thinking that the English are a bit demented.

The pace picks up halfway into the book and becomes more interesting as we gain a bit more insight into his life, although having finished reading the book, now it makes me want to think twice before going out to eat in a restaurant and maybe never eat out at all... Maybe he shouldn't have tried to use so much shock-value in his book. The change in pace makes me think that the first half was just a warm up for him. Perhaps Nigel should have gone back and rewritten the first half. I also could not help from wondering why after he finally did get the mother that he always wanted, one who could cook and bake, the author didn't realize that she could never replace the mother he had before... ????? hmmmmmm.

An OK read that gets more enjoyable towards the end and allows the reader to learn a lot about English food.

Rating:
Summary: I was FLOORED by this book!
Review: Slater is a brilliant writer. Brilliant! This book is so perfectly heartbreaking, it is difficult at times to read and just as difficult to put down.

Stunning work.

Rating:
Summary: Toast: The story of a boy's hunger.
Review: Toast is a "laugh out loud" funny book.
It is a quick read, great for airline travel.
This tale of a young lad's upper-middle class upbringing in Sixties England rings so true to life that it hurts.
Anyone who set foot in the U.K. in the Sixties will be engaged.
I would call this the culinary version of the year's surprise best seller 'Eats shoots and leaves' as dear reader, you will soon discover.