American Pie : Slices of Life (and Pie) from America's Back Roads

Rating:
Summary: Oh My what a Pie
Review: American Pie is a well-crafted book. I read this book after my daughter gave it to me for Christmas, and I could not put it down. I just wanted Pascale's journey to continue and continue. As I read of each stop I could imagine myself meeting and liking the people she met. Sprinkled throughout the book were quiet and somber moments, like the time a bear trapper told Pascale he once was going to commit suicide, but didn't because of pie. But mostly this book is full of great recipes and notable people. This book is a great tonic to those of us who think all this flag waving is hooey. Really the patriotic people are the folks in American Pie, like Tootie Guirard, Minister Edgar Crawford, Martha and Curtis Purvis, and Elva Twitchell, oh I could go on and on. Try the "Fike's Lemon Pecan Pie from Pine Bluff, Arkansas" recipe, it'll knock your socks off.

Rating:
Summary: Oh My what a Pie
Review: American Pie is a well-crafted book. I read this book after my daughter gave it to me for Christmas, and I could not put it down. I just wanted Pascale's journey to continue and continue. As I read of each stop I could imagine myself meeting and liking the people she met. Sprinkled throughout the book were quiet and somber moments, like the time a bear trapper told Pascale he once was going to commit suicide, but didn't because of pie. But mostly this book is full of great recipes and notable people. This book is a great tonic to those of us who think all this flag waving is hooey. Really the patriotic people are the folks in American Pie, like Tootie Guirard, Minister Edgar Crawford, Martha and Curtis Purvis, and Elva Twitchell, oh I could go on and on. Try the "Fike's Lemon Pecan Pie from Pine Bluff, Arkansas" recipe, it'll knock your socks off.

Rating:
Summary: traveling down the highways and pie ways
Review: First-generation Franco-American Pasquale Le Draoulec has never had a pie (she has eaten the French tarte and explains the difference) when she decides, on a road trip from San Francisco to New York, to start looking for different pies and pie makers on the backroads of America. With her friend Kris in her car "Betty", they meet scores of people in the most unusual ways. If someone doesn' make pie themselves, they always seem to know the perfect place to get a piece. And no mater how mean they seem when the women first encounter them, they are always happy to talk about pie.

"Pie", she writes, "brings even the crustiest people out of their shells."

One road trip is not enough for the scope of this subject, and the ladies make a couple of more trips, with "pie tips" (one garnered from crashing a funeral) helping them find their way. The people they meet also pose for photographs and, more imporytnt, share their favorite recipe and tips. Everyone has their own advice for making pie, and it is all gathered here. It is a cute snapshot of pie in different states, ending with a trip to our nation's capital!!! Read and enjoy with a slice of your favorite pie today!

Rating:
Summary: Great premise, but this book misses in so many ways
Review: Initially I was very excited about this book. I not only love pie, but can make a very good pie. It is quickly becoming a lost art and I thought "what a great idea for a book and a damn good excuse for a road trip." But...and this is a big but, even though the author is suppose to be a food journalist I found her knowledge of food to be spare and her writing style irritating and amateurish.

Her descriptions of the people along the way are often cruel. And how many times does she tell us that she stopped and took a photograph of such and such characters, but few are included in the book. So...what is the point? The book is riddled with details that detract rather than enhance the story. Doesn't she have an editor?

I think that there should have been more regional pie information and less about their drinking late in the evening in their various motel rooms. This book misses on both counts; as a story about American pie and a chick road trip.

There are several pie recipes, but there is no recipe index. This book is a lazy, quickly put together yarn worth telling, but by someone with more talent and insight.

Rating:
Summary: TASTY TREAT for PIE LOVERS
Review: Pascale Le Draoulec's "American Pie" is such a treat to savor. Her talent at capturing the flavor of a scene is so acute, she even made this literalist (me) feel like a co-pilot on her drive across America. The book is brimming with quirky, endearing character sketches -- think bear trappers, hog farmers and funeral goers. And the recipes that end each chapter are so much more than just recipes -- they're artifacts that paint unique and wonderful culinary personalities. This is a must read for all people who love to eat pie, bake pie or simply reminisce over pies from the past. Just be warned: reading her chapter on Duarte's Tavern in Pescadero, Calif. -- home to the world's most divine ollalieberry pie -- unleashed such strong sensory memories for me, I'm actually planning an expensive detour on an upcoming trip to taste the pie again in person.

Rating:
Summary: A wonderful memory
Review: This book brought me back to wonderful memories. I loved this book! You will too. I have given it too my friends as gifts and they have loved it. My grandmother baked the best strawberry-rhubarb pie. The crust was flaky and flavorful. It was sweet but the rhubarb gave it a tangy flavor. Most of all it was filled with love. On a summer day to come home from school to a piece of fresh baked pie with a glass of milk. Life doesn't get any better than that. Ms. Le Draoulec thank you for bringing back that memory. I read the book every day on the train to work and savored every moment of it. It is fun, inspiring, witty and charming.

Rating:
Summary: Delicious Fun, Inectious Enthusiasm! Sit Back and Enjoy!
Review: This book is a delightful mix of food writing, recipe book, travelogue, Americana, and good literature. It is light, fluffy and fun, and reading it might just change your life, if you let it.

Le Draoulec has a love of small-town America that gives this delightful book the flavor of a Charles Kurault essay. She spent several weeks crossing the United States with two simple rules -- stay off the big freeways and look for great pie. To add to the fun, she took a girlfriend, someone who had explored Australia but never small-town America. The two set off into the unknown, and quickly give themselves over to this delightful adventure.("We tossed our running shoes in the trunk, and that's where they stayed for the next three weeks.")

As a lover of pie, a baker of pie, as someone who often takes trips on the small roads and who loves to stop at non-chain restaurants, I loved the idea. Le Draoulec delivers. This book is as sweet, wholesome and gently spicy as a good homemade apple pie.

But wait... did I mention the recipes? She didn't just find pie, she came back with recipes! I have tried just a few, and each so far has been great.

Underlying all this great material is the fact that Pascale Le Draoulec can write. She has a wonderfully light touch with langauge -- never awkward. Her literary references land as fun, mind-expanding, rather than reminder's of the author's education.

And, yes, reading a book with this much love in it can change your life. I am more likely now to go ahead and order dessert when I see pie on the menu, and I am more likely to stop in a small, independent restaurant where I might find pie. Just last week, I got to tell an Austin chef how good her pie is. She glowed. My husband just sat back, smiled, and watched the two of us share our passion for pie. As soon as you start talking pie with someone, you're not strangers anymore.

Rating:
Summary: Great road trip, great recipes, great read!
Review: This book is very well written, entertaining, useful and funny. What more can you ask for in a book? It will appeal to anyone who loves a road trip, food or America. It takes you on a action-packed journey around the country, with lots of interesting sites and great characters. This book moved me on many levels as I recalled my own pie memories and stepped back to look at what I make time for (and don't make time for) in my life. Pascale explores not only pie, but American culture and priorities. We are so focused on the quick and easy, that some of our greatest treasures are at stake (pie and the time to bake one). Not only is it a great read, but it is a gold mine of pie recipes from the backroads of America. And, to top it off, it includes charming black & white photos that capture the trip and the pie bakers. I highly recommend this book. (Great gift item!)

Rating:
Summary: Thelma and Louise go for pie
Review: This books combines the perspectives of the roadtrip, the female "buddy adventure," and a food book all in one, as author Le Draoulec and two different female friends go on two different roadtrips to explore the world of pie. In her search for pie, the author encounters interesting characters and snapshots of America and Americana.

A downside is that the author's engagement is somewhat... superficial. By her own admission, her choosing of pie as the theme for her roadtrip is arbitrary. As a journalist always looking for a story, she is constantly on the lookout for certain tidbits, soundbites, and events of interest, and this renders a certain self-consciouness to the proceedings.

For example: In Memphis, an old man mentions a pie stop that local people go to after church: "I was glad he brought church up," the writer says, "because Kris and I had a hankering for some live, soul-searing spirituals." She goes on to describe their morning adventure as two 30-something white yuppie women in an all-black southern church. How phony, opportunistic, whitebread and contrived can you get? That, and a few too many predictable self-deprecatory "to hell with our waistlines -- we're eating more pie" jokes of the "Cathy" comicstrip sensibility -- wears thin after awhile.

Some of those aspects may be pet peeves on my part. But a very real problem with the book is a significant loss of momentum between sections (between her first and second pie trips) that makes it read almost like two different books.

All that said, this is a fun and entertaining book. It will make you excited about pie, and for cooks there are probably some great recipes. Despite some superficiality, there are some compassionate and interesting portraits of the people they encounter. And in the end, the author digs a bit deeper into herself, and finally connects with her subject matter. I found the concluding two pages to be moving and memorable.