Rating: 
Summary: The Debt to Pleasure is a pleasure itself
Review: I love reading about food - whether it be a description in a novel or a book specifically written about food. This is somewhere in the middle - a novel which is a parody of the foodie memoir.The narrator Tarquin is a self-important snob, travelling from the UK to his home in Provence. He shares his thoughts on food and recipes, and also fills in the reader about his past. We learn that not only is he deluded about his own ability and living under the shadow of his world-renowned artist brother; but slowly we discover he is a very devious character as well. This is a well written, funny story, and has the requisite yummy food writing (highly inspiring!) but it loses a star because of Tarquin's long winded philosophical discourses. I know it's a parody but....
Rating:
Summary: a slow thriller for the gourmand
Review: John Lanchaster's debut, A Debt to Pleasure, is one of a number of food-related novels to appear on national bestseller lists recently. While professional reviews were overwhelmingly laudatory, public reaction to the difficult book was more of a love/hate affair. Maybe the esoteric vocabulary and arrogant nature of Lanchaster's irrepressible narrator, Tarquin Winot, targets the reviewers insecurity by appealing to the genius-envy we all live with. Or perhaps those in the industry who were confused by certain features of the novel (like frequent and seemingly endless parentheticals which purposefully lead the reader careening down other avenues of thought, until stupefied, they realize guiltily that they are lost in the words) felt too baffled to issue forth a criticism. Whatever the case, a dictionary and a reading environment free from distraction are recommended.Throughout the book, the narrator's sanctimonious musings leap aggressively between the classic subjects of history, art and (of course) cuisine. Themes are tied together as our anti-hero prepares, contemplates, and consumes carefully considered gourmet meals while on a car tour of the French countryside. Aspects of each meal inevitably provide Winot with yet another piece of evidence to reaffirm his superiority over the rest of humanity. Every step of the way, we consider his thought provoking, if not psychotic, perspectives on subjects as far-ranging as the importance of a balanced breakfast and the inevitability of murder.The biting, comic, tone of Winot's commentary on the world around him brings to mind a similarly misguided protagonist: Ignatius J. Reilly of John Kennedy Toole's masterpiece, A Confederacy of Dunces. To be sure, both books share a tragi-comic impending sense of doom, perhaps meant to leave the reader feeling uneasy -- wondering what sort of person he or she has become to be smiling in the midst of such truly unpleasant commentary. A murderous past and deplorable intentions surface as the novel progresses, and one eerily feels an implicit warning of the real and present danger lurking menacingly in the mind of every true elitist. By the end of the book, Tarquin Winot's treacherous sophistication reminds us of another high-culture psychopath -- the great Hannibal Lecter.The avid reader is sure to be impressed by Lanchaster's debut effort, and his skill as a writer cannot be overstated. The most educated culinarian will marvel at his profound appreciation for the culinary arts (he was once the restaurant critic for the London Observer) and the brilliant way in which he uses food as a medium to unravel Winot's sinister psychosis. With its meandering pace, though, and psychological detours, A Debt to Pleasure is not for everyone. It's not a page-turner to take you skipping away from everyday life, but rather (like a good meal), something to reflect on over time.
Rating: 
Summary: Darkly delicious!
Review: What do you get when you mix dark language, delicious food and smoldering erotica in one single novel? You get The Debt to Pleasure. This is one of the most delectable novels I've ever read. John Lanchester mixes a dark and sinister plot with beautiful and mouth-watering descriptions of exotic foods and disarming erotica. Tarquin Winot is one of the most sinister characters ever written. His exploits enthralled me. I couldn't put this book down. This cookbook-cum-erotica is brilliant from beginning to end. By far, one of the best books I've read this year. Highly recommended...
Rating:
Summary: "What? A cookbook?"
Review: I said to a friend of mine who wanted me to read this book, but was unwilling to reveal its true nature. While the thought of reading a cookbook did not appeal to me, he insisted and I'm glad he did-- certainly this is one of the best modern novels I have read. The plot flies shockingly out of nowhere, and Tarquin Winot is one of the most purely evil characters I have ever enountered in a work of literature. Outside the plot structure, Winot's clever observations on everything he mentions provide sufficient entertainment in themselves. The Debt to Pleasure is an impressively constructed novel.
Rating:
Summary: A good read. This choice quote is from the preface:
Review: In one of my very favorite prefaces, the protagonist (author) says that he is writing the preface before he writes the text, rather than writing the preface last as is commonly done: ". . .we are all familar with the after-the-fact tone--weary, self-justificatory, agrieved, apologetic--shared by ship captains appearing before boards of inquiry to explain how they come to run their vessels aground, and by authors composing forewards." It is "a collection of memories, dreams, reflections, the whole simmering together, synergistically exchanging savors and essences like some ideal daube. This will, I hope, give the book a serendipitous, ambulatory, and yet progressive structure." "Finally, I have decided that, wherever possible, the primary vehicle for the transmission of my culinary reflections will be the menu. These menus shall be arranged seasonally. It seems to me that the menu lies close to the heart of the human impulse to order, to beauty, to pattern. It draws on the original chthonic upwelling that underlies all art." "A menu can embody the anthropology of a culture or the psychology of an individual; it can be a biography, a cultural history, a lexicon. . ." "It can be a way of knowledge, a path, an inspiration, a Tao, an ordering, a memory, a fantasy, a seduction, a prayer, a summoning, an incantation murmured under the breath as the torchlights sink lower and the forest looms taller and the wolves howl louder and the fire prepares for its submission to the encroaching dark." "I'm not sure that this would be my choice for a honeymoon hotel. The gulls outside my window are louder than motorcycles."
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Summary: Can fiction prose get as tactile and ebullient as this?
Review: Do you know that word "barbecue" originates from Haitian "barbacado" that refers to a rack-frame system leaving off the ground a bed? Do you know that tomatoes, if imminently picked and allowed to ripe during transport, will turn plasticky and insipid? Do you know that the thickness requirement in preserving the juice in barbecued meat is an inch to 3 inches? Have you ever wondered why starch (such as rice) and fruits, and not a glass of iced water, serve to subdue the spiciness of curry? John Lanchester's The Debt of Pleasure not only deftly answers all the above questions but also, in impeccable and painfully beguiling prose, embraces his readers into the world of Tarquin Winot. Strictly speaking, the book, which is nothing more than a scrumptious culinary reflection in thoughtful menus arranged by the seasons, cannot be deemed as a work of fiction if Winot is a real chef. From his menus, which embody different cultures, capture a man's psychology and thus his impulse to order, and witness the come-and-go of dining trends; Winot related the story of his life to the preparations of food. The writing is as insatiating and titillating as the menus. Winot retreated to southern France and reminisced, papered his thoughts on the subject of food that evoked his childhood, his parents, his brother Barthomelow the artist, the beloved maidservant Mary-Theresa, and the home cook Mitthaug. Aroma of a particular dish could graciously tug his memory and coalesce the disparate locations of Winot's upbringing. Woven into his painfully and haughtily opinionated meditations on food was disheartening anecdotes of his family. His brother struggled as an artist who, like other artists in history, never felt adequately attended to for his work and died a tragic death of fungus poisoning. His parents, in a multiplying series of mishaps that primarily involved leaving all the kitchen gas taps on and a full-scale leak from the gas boiler, died in an explosion triggered by turning on a light switch. The lighter side of the book tells of Winot's aspiration to becoming a chef. He attributed such biographical significance to a chance visit to his brother's boarding school in England. The food served was a nightmarish demonstration of culinary banality and a stark confirmation of Captain Ford's quote in 1846 "The salad is the glory of every French dinner and the disgrace of most in England." A more humorous side would be Winot's rash denunciation of sweet-and-sour dishes (lupsup, meaning garbage) that dominated the English dining. As a native of Hong Kong, the notion truly hit home as any violent combination such as the sweet-and-sour taste is immediately deemed as inauthentic. Read it as a novel "masquerading" as a cookbook, as a memoir, as food critics, as secretive cooking knacks, as word of caution (such as the roasting of apple seeds will release toxins), as an indispensable companion to your conventional cookbook, an eccentric philosophical soliloquy of the culinary art. I vouch that anyone who reads this book will find the recipes zestfully flirting with the tastebuds and liberating the senses. Exquisitely written. 4.2 stars.
Rating:
Summary: Highly recommended
Review: I truly enjoyed this dark and odd novel. The ideal reader has an interest in cooking, Europe, camp humor, satire and a large vocabulary. Like on the previous reviewers, I found it to be a close (if very strange) cousin of Nabokov's Pale Fire.
Rating:
Summary: If only all cookbooks were this fun to read!
Review: I enjoyed this book more as I got further into it, for obvious reasons. As a lay person reading this book that was given to me by a friend, I found it at first very hard to get into. But as I learned more about Tarquin, the more I became fascinated with his psychological dichotemy. Looking back at the beginning of the book after finishing it, I could see the progression of the character in a more revealing light. Definitely worth the first (and second) read. I only docked it a start because, as I mentioned before, I think the casual reader may be turned off in the beginning of the book and miss out on this wonderful narrative by not pressing onward.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful
Review: This book is beautifully dark and endlessly funny and extremely smart in that English way. I've given it to half a dozen people, and most love it (some are indifferent).
Rating:
Summary: An evil little book!
Review: Reading this one is a bit like having too many glasses of a fabulous sauterne: wonderful, flavorful intoxication that leaves you feeling a little off your feed in succeeding hours. Look, this one is worth it, if only for the French art tourism advice and the culinary hints. The main character's goals and motivation are so much less sophisticated and insightful than his tastes that I docked the book a star, but you might not agree. And you may never feel safe gathering wild mushrooms again!
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