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Summary: Can't Breathe....Laughing!!!!
Review: Everytime I pick this book up I have to put it down after a page or two in order to stop laughing long enough to get my breath. It is extremely clever and witty, and has beautiful graphics. A perfect perfect gift.
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Summary: HILARIOUS!
Review: I spent last evening laughing hysterically while reading this book. In today's uncertain times, it's great to look back to an earlier, greasier, more gelatinous world where a clean apron, a pertly raised eyebrow, and a huge spoon were all a gal needed to conquer her man... and perhaps the world! (Oh, and an expertly spiked Vienna sausage held just so can't hurt either). Buy this book, and get some for your friends - especially those who like to cook. Just don't let them make you any of the recipes that lie within the pages of this wonderful book! Thanks, Mr. Lilek! Write more soon!
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Summary: Those who do not remember history...
Review: In a less enlightened age, "food" was a much more broadly applied term. Most of us do not remember (clearly) the days when ketchup was used in desserts, or cooked eggs were slathered onto cuts of meat still glistening with untrimmed fat. James Lileks has ensured that the horrible mistakes of the past need not be repeated, with this instructive and hilarious look through recipes of the mid-twentieth century. Every page is a delight--to read, that is; the photos may well ruin your appetite. Please buy it! You won't be disappointed, and you'll encourage Mr. Lileks to write more.
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Summary: How lucky we are...
Review: There are plenty of history books about the 1950's. But to get the real feel of that era, take a gander at this book! Not only is the text entertaining-- the pictures are just too horrid to describe. The fact that these were the mainstream, approved, and regaled foodstuffs of the 1950's says more about the time than any dry recitation of historical facts. One look at the "meat pie, with a meat crust" says more about the life and times than a dumpster full of NY Times front pages. Lilek's running commentary is hilarious and merciful counterpoint to the gloppy and gory illustrations.
There's at least one cringe, shudder, or guffaw per page!
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Summary: Buy this book. You will laugh. Laughter is good.
Review: It's been a long time since I've laughed out loud while reading a book, and with every stultifyingly lurid photograph and each hysterical paragraph, the laughs just won't quit. With this work, James Lileks establishes himself as one of the funniest writers around. More than ever, we need this type of humor...and Lileks delivers big quivering gelatinous globs of funny. Add this one to your shopping cart NOW! Heck, buy 4 or 5 copies; I guarantee that once you've read it, you'll think of quite a few friends of who'll get as big a charge out of it as you did.
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Summary: A must for the well-stocked coffee table
Review: Fans of Mr. Lileks' brilliant website, lileks.com, will know that it's undergoing some major changes right now. The good news is that the Gallery of Regrettable Food is finally here in book form! It's the best of the worst of cuisine from the 30's to the 70's in all its day-glo, jello-molded, lard-laden glory. Lileks is a one-man Mystery Science Theater 3000 of America's past; he provides hilarious commentary for the horrifying photos and cookbook excerpts collected in this beautifully designed volume.
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Summary: A must-see Tour de Gross!
Review: Having been a long-time patron of the Institute of Official Cheer, I was already familiar with the hideously fascinating Gallery of Regrettable Food. Revisiting its halls by way of this book, however, I still found myself laughing out loud at the trenchantly witty observations that comprise Lilek's interpretive tour of the hideous culinary transgressions of yesteryear. From vomitesque gelatin molds to unspeakable meat melanges to lurid Technicolor (un)appetizer trays, this book is a non-stop freak show of the very worst of American cuisine of the 1930's through 70's. Not only bad recipes are skewered, however; the book also provides a cutting commentary on the way postwar consumer marketing targeted housewives with visions of impossible, even manic, household bliss achieved through unique cookery. Lileks is at his finest when taking images of cheesy domestic enthusiasm and weaving a backstory for them that is at once grimmer and infinitely more intriguing. Doesn't Dad seem to like his snappy coordinated barbequing outfit just a little TOO much? What dark thoughts might be lurking behind Aunt Jenny's matronly smile and her unceasing campaign to get her friends and neighbors to use more Spry shortening? This book is at the top of my Christmas gift list for everyone I know who appreciates ironic, offbeat humor. If you're that sort of person too, I highly recommend you get yourself a copy as well.
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Summary: Outrageous and Hysterical
Review: James Lileks may be the greatest humorist in America today. This book is a gallery of some of the genuinely awful cookbooks of the past. Jawdroppingly outrageous attempts to make ketchup a part of every course of the meal, Jello used in nearly obscene ways and meat, Meat, MEAT; they're all here. All of this described with a smooth prose that always delivers with an unexpected sting; vaguely reminiscent of Dave Barry, but unlike Barry, who I find works best in small doses, this builds with every page. And amidst all the silliness of Stag Weiner Bakes, Lileks manages to capture a warm glow of nostalgia for this lost Americana from the pre-ironic age. Production values are excellent, capturing the garish colors, limp art, and deeply odd character of these strange old cookbooks.
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Summary: Hideously Appealing
Review: Witty, amazing, hilarious, and yes, sometimes disgusting. James Lileks explores his love/hate/fear relationship with the bygone products of America's kitchens. From out of the misty depths of history comes a cavalcade of inexplicable boiled, greasy, molded, festively be-toothpicked horrors from various old cookbooks. Lileks' recipe: Start with a healthy portion of nostalgia, add a heaping helping of sarcasm, a dash of retro-graphics and typesetting, and a big chunk of fatty beefsteak. Boil and serve over badly photographed and unappetizing creamed whatsit. This book takes us into a parallel universe where pancakes taste better when made with 7UP and vegetables are only for display - IF YOU EAT THE ASPARAGUS - YER A FILTHY COMMIE! A world where bizarre Jell-O molds are the height of sophistication and men aren't men unless they can choke down an entire charred rump-roast and wash it down with a couple'a highballs. Taken from various sources, including promotional cookbooks given away free to homemakers by food products companies eager to drum up interest in their wares, this is not a book for the faint of heart. Some of the dishes shown here are really quite foul. But the writing is crisp and entertaining and Lileks manages to convey his fondness for the 'simpler times' these recipes evoke, even as they turn your stomach slightly. If you're looking for the recipes for the dishes presented here, may God have mercy on your soul. In fact, the only thing keeping me from giving this book 5 out of 5 stars is the food.
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Summary: The Hideous Treats of Yesteryear
Review: James Lileks, a Minneapolis journalist, started the "Gallery of Regrettable Food" on his web site. The gallery carried pictures and copy from recipie books of the 1930s through 1970s. Not the practical sort of recipie books with advice and instructions on putting together wholesome solid food. Horrific _corporate_ cookbooks. Cookbooks from 7-Up, and Swanson, and the National Rice Council. Cookbooks full of pictures of dishes that defy belief. _Things_ made from aspic, the colorless jelly so blissfully absent from modern cuisine. _Things_ with textures and colors out of a Lovecraft novel. _Things_ made with lard and Cream of Mushroom Soup and corn starch. Lileks's snarky commentary is utterly hilarious. The best bits: Stories that flesh out the background of characters in ad campaigns and cookbooks, like the saga of Aunt Jenny, the Spry shortening spokeswoman. This book is the result of years of polishing and picking material from that site. The pictures are crisper than the web version, and it's a lot easier to show folks. Which you'll find yourself doing a lot.
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