"Captivity" -- Boring, Superficial, and Inaccurate

György Spiró's long and rambling book Captivity relates the story of a hapless Roman Jew at the very beginning of the current era. The reviews of this novel were positive, so I decided to read it even though it's almost 900 pages long. I realized early on that I didn't like it, but I've given up on several books recently so I gritted my teeth and determined to finish this one. I do not feel even a little bit rewarded for my persistence. I recommend avoiding it. Here are three reasons:

First: the book is boring.

Uri, the central character, might have been developed in an interesting or mildly appealing way if the author had really been interested in him. However, the author seemed to have as an actual goal to write an unbearably complete (though not particularly well researched) description of life in the Roman Empire in three important places: Rome, Judea, and Alexandria. The political intrigues of the day -- emperor by emperor, corrupt scandal by corrupt scandal, Jewish persecution by Jewish persecution -- are described endlessly.

Ultimately, the whole narrative seems to be pretty pointless. There are clever references to events and people that aren't spelled out, so that if you know a little bit you can conclude that you are smart -- for example, an indirect reference to the historian Josephus towards the end of the book. I didn't think this offset how boring it was.

Second: the book is inaccurate.

Maybe you will think that it's worth getting on with a book like this because at least you will learn some history. Unfortunately, you would be much better off with a real history book. This one is full of trivial mistakes and careless oversights. I'm not an expert at all, but I saw enough to be very doubtful that the book can be trusted. I have no interest in checking the details about the lives of the emperors and their agents, or in checking the long descriptions of the Jewish neighborhood in Rome, or of life in Judea, but I noticed problems with a few areas that I've read about in the past. In some cases I think the author didn't know much more than what you could learn from a tour guide at the antiquities in Jerusalem, Caesarea, Rome, or Ostia Antiqua.

As in many historical novels, the author is careless with food details. The setting is the Roman Empire in the first century. But the characters eat oranges and grapefruit. Oranges existed in China at the time, though probably not in the Roman Empire. Grapefruit, however, is a cultivar developed in the Caribbean (like, after Columbus's voyages) and first noted in 1750. So maybe it existed by 1700 at the earliest. For quite a while it was called shaddock, later grapefruit, so the word is really wrong. There are other howlers about food ways as well -- this is just an example.

The details of Jewish customs of the era are also a bit sloppy. For example, Uri is supposed to have had a Bar Mitzvahs at the age of 13 towards the beginning of the book, and his son has one towards the end of the book. I don't think so. This custom arose in the Middle Ages, not before the fall of the Temple. I think the author didn't bother to research which Jewish customs, especially sabbath customs and burial customs like the saying of the Kaddish, arose later than the era described in the book -- often much later.

The lack of attention to detail in any particular area might be insignificant, but many suspicious errors eventually add up -- I don't have confidence in the whole.

Third: the book is superficial.

Uri, the main character in Captivity, is kind of a schlemiel who turns up in all kinds of situations contrived to be of great interest to modern readers. Sometimes the character tries to understand all his missed opportunities, including what he thinks he should have done when visiting Jerusalem and Alexandria. At one point these are his quoted thoughts:

"You’ll find no bigger impostor than me in the land of the living! Such a nonsensical gaffe! I was almost executed in Jerusalem as a supposed spy of Agrippa’s, whereas here I was pampered and sucked up to as long as that tool, that despicable Agrippa, that quarter-Jewish political vermin whom I never saw in my life, remained alive and heir presumptive of the Great Jewish Kingdom." (p. 514)

One reviewer even compared Uri to Woody Allen's Zelig. No way -- Zelig is a comic film, and it doesn't go on and on about the background. This is exactly the problem: a poorly-developed pathetic character, a contrived plot, enormous amounts of background detail that don't advance anything at all, and lots of coincidences so that the author can tell you what he thinks you want to know. Not a shred of humor!

Though Captivity is centered on Jewish life in the Roman Empire I think the book is substantially aimed at Christians who are curious about the life and times of Jesus. Indeed in the last 20 or 30% of the book, the "Nazarene" sect begins to show up, though the central character never becomes one of them. And one of the little indirect hints is the appearance of Jesus (unnamed) and two thieves in the prison cell where Uri is being held just before one particular Passover in Jerusalem, though Uri gets out and makes the acquaintance of Pontius Pilate, while the others...

I'll admit this: the author doesn't totally pander to the Christian reader, though he does go into quite a lot of detail about the beliefs of the early Christians. In fact, maybe the author overdoes the extent of Christian beliefs that he claims were established this early in history.

Just before the end of the book, Uri discusses the Nazarenes with an old friend and lover:

“It’s a simple religion,” she said. “It will win through.” ...

“It’s a dangerous religion,” he said. “It’s going to cause hideous problems.” (p. 852)

The jetty at the site of the port of Caesarea -- founded by the Romans, used in the middle ages and the Crusader era. After a
long period of disuse it was restored in the 19th century and is now an archaeology park. From our trip last summer.
In the novel Captivity, this is one of the locations where Uri travels during his stay in Judea.

Yellowtail Snapper with Moroccan Spice

Yellowtail snapper was featured today at Whole Foods, so I bought one. I decided to cook it with some Moroccan-style spices, onions, tomatoes, dried apricots, and preserved lemon.

My newest spice: Ras El Hanout. I made the preserved lemons
last November -- lemons in salt and lemon juice. I also used some
slow-roasted tomatoes from the farmers' market, frozen last August.

Olives and pomegranate seeds were the garnish.  

After cooking the spices and vegetables for quite a while, I added the fish.

The fish and some couscous with the tomato sauce. Also a bit of Len's bread from last night.

Fresh Bread

Two crusty loaves of French bread -- perfect for a very cold day.

Len started baking soon after lunch, and the bread was ready for dinner. He found a modified version of Julia Child's French bread recipe online. At the upper left above, you can see the dough rising near a heat register. The other images show the kneading, forming, and slashing of the dough, and the addition of water to a pan beneath the oven rack where the loaves were about to bake. The steam from the water in the pan creates the exceptional and tasty crust on the loaves.

The snow wasn't deep, but it was just the kind of day to stay in and bake.

A number of years ago, Len baked bread often, but this was his first try for a long time. He seemed to remember much of what had to be done! I hope he'll do it again.

"During the Reign of the Queen of Persia"

Northern Ohio, the 1950s, a family living on a farm just beyond a town and not very far from Cleveland: this is the setting of Joan Chase's novel During the Reign of the Queen of Persia. It's a pretty typical book from the early 1980s, a time of colorful family dramas full of slightly eccentric grandparents, aunts, ex-husbands, adolescents, pesky little kids, unfaithful lovers, responsible uncles, irresponsible uncles. Many of these novels have now been forgotten, abandoned by readers who once loved them.

The characters in this book are at the same time familiar and original. I'm struck especially by the very high level of hostility that pervades the dynamics here -- the children resent much about one another, the adults have many conflicts and lots of baggage, the grandparents are hostile to each other and often to their daughters and grandchildren. Family members come and go, finding jobs or dreams in New York or Illinois or Texas, but all the action occurs on the Ohio farm.

Feeding the family plays an important role in the lives of the older family members. Not too surprisingly, there's a lot of hostility in the way food is distributed and consumed. Uncle Dan, for example, has a market in town, and brings home steaks and other nice delicacies just for his wife and two daughters. The other children (nieces) watch from an adjacent room, having been fed inferior food at an earlier dinner time. Here's a description of dinner for the not-so-favored children, and how their grandmother (hurrying to get to her nightly bingo game or movie) interacted with her own dinner:

"Gram was proud of what she'd survived; once she turned eighty she boasted of her age... She poured water on the chops to stop the burning and clamped on a lid, opened green beans she'd canned the last year she'd had a garden -- they had to boil fifteen minutes and she'd wait for that. She'd known more than one family  that had died, every last one, from a taste of spoiled green beans. Everything was now frying and boiling at top speed. Sow-bellied, spike-legged, there was something about her tough management of the supper that  stirred like an exuberant passion that had not been so much used up as outlived. 

"We tried to eat what she'd cooked, working down small bits of the hard dry pork with lots of milk. Gram ignored the meat and ate through a plate of green beans with vinegar ladled on it and then cut herself two slabs of the white Dutch loaf. Its powdery dusting of flour sprinkled the table and her front; she cut it, cradling it in her  arms, sawing the iron butcher knife back and forth across the front of her sunken breasts, squeezing the bread against herself. ... The country butter had little specks of white whey. The bread was so soft we hardly had to chew it. Maybe it was because Gram had lived so long and had so much trouble that she subsisted almost entirely on these soft white loaves." (p. 48-49)

During the first chapter of the book, when the above scene takes place, the four granddaughters/ nieces are adolescents. Their grandfather had died some time before, and the family was no longer running an active farm.

Ritz Ad: 1951

During the second chapter, we go back to when the four girls were younger, and Grandfather was alive and running an active farm. His food preferences show his eccentricity and in my opinion reflect his hostility to a lot of the life they lead:

"Grandad ... finished his cornflakes, then filled the bowl with Ritz crackers and dumped his coffee over them. They bloated and dissolved. Gram said he'd been feeding pigs so long he ate like one. ... Since no one was there to care, we made ourselves sugar sandwiches on white bread and went onto the back porch to eat." (p. 90) 

The book is readable, and the characters are vivid at times, but there's something dated about the book as a whole. I can't quite say why I find it so retro!

Historic Kitchens and Banquets

"The Edible Monument" is the name of an exhibit currently on view at the Detroit Institute of Arts. This exhibit includes about 140 prints, rare books and serving manuals from the Getty Research Institute collection and private collections, as well as a very impressive sugar sculpture made by modern food artist Ivan Day. This sculpture, titled "Palace of Circe," is based on an 18th century print. "The figures were meant to impart the consequences of gluttony with a story about the ancient Greek hero Ulysses. When he landed on the island of Aeaea, his men were so greedy that the sorceress Circe turned them into pigs."

Ivan Day, "Palace of Circe," 2015. The original would have been used
to decorate a banquet table. The source dates to 1776. 

During our visit to the museum last week, I enjoyed the major items in this exhibit, which were images of decorated tables and banquet scenes from the 16th through early 19th century. I particularly was fascinated by a side room where several books showed images of kitchens, food shops, and food-preparation tools from these early times.

"The Food Shop" by Abraham Bosse, Netherlands, 1600s.

"The Butcher" by A-J de Fehrt, Paris, 1763.

"Room next to the kitchen and scullery," Venice, 1570.

"Outdoor kitchen with carving tools," Venice, 1596.

Have a great year!

Enjoy New Year's Eve 2017 as Mona Lisa celebrates... and recovers. Images from a blog post I did long ago:

HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE!

Funny Little Food Essays

"Edible history is the most vivid testimony to vanished empires. ... Artifacts and institutions disappear, but the gastronomic archaeologist will still be able to trace the influence of India in the English addition to curry, and to find, as I did, that the most poignant evidence of our former glory is the survival of porridge in Pakistan." -- A Pike in the Basement, p. 57.

Sometime in the 1980's British wine merchant and writer Simon Loftus wrote "tales of a hungry traveller" (to spell it Britishly). He did go to a lot of places. Some in the depths of Asia. Some in the Deep South of the USA where his friend Calvin Trillin sent him in search of barbecue and catfish. He explains the word for hot food to use when ordering in Greece, and describes nightmarish train trips through obscure parts of the world. He also dined, sometimes with disdain, at widely acclaimed restaurants in big and famous cities like Paris, New York, Las Vegas, or London. He always has something clever (almost too clever) to say about the food and -- especially in the case of pretentious big-city restaurants -- about the people who served it.

In every case, he offers some sort of recipe connected to his tale. At times the recipe choice is bizarre, as in the case of a memoir of a duck named Donald. House pet Donald Duck was chummy with the family's pet cat during Loftus's childhood. Unfortunately Donald was killed by an aggressive pet dachshund. The recipe for this chapter explains how to bone, stuff, and roast a duck. Similarly, Loftus offers a long description (mainly quoted from an early 19th century memoir) of a pig that was trained to "point" to game, helping hunters just as a pointer dog would do, and demonstrating its great loyalty and intelligence. The recipe for this chapter: a sausage and bacon casserole. Oh well. I guess if you're an omnivore, you're an omnivore.

It's a mildly amusing book to read, not too long, the kind of little articles that once appeared in magazines like the late lamented Gourmet. If Loftus first published these essays one by one, I wasn't able to discover it. The illustrations -- black and white woodcuts -- are also amusing. A nice little book for a cold winter vacation day at the end of the year.

Chocolate, Tea, and Coffee at the Detroit Institute of Arts

"From Novelty to Necessity: This exhibit takes you back 400 years to the time when COFFEE, TEA, and CHOCOLATE were first introduced in Europe." So reads a poster as you enter a fantastic art exhibit currently at the Detroit Institute of Arts.

"Bitter|Sweet: Coffee, Tea & Chocolate" offers excitement to all five senses, not just the usual museum-goers' activity of seeing art. As we toured the exhibit today, we looked at maps and historic information. We viewed a wide variety of paintings, prints, artifacts, and tableware related to the three beverages. We smelled some coffee beans in one display. We listened to the background music: Bach's Coffee Cantata. And in the final gallery we enjoyed tasting some historic chocolate concoctions. 

Using my camera, the kind ticket-taker who admitted us to the exhibit even photographed us with our friends Elaine and Bob. On the gallery wall was a sign that said photography was not only permitted, it was encouraged. So...

Large blow-up posters of early illustrations showed historic coffee drinking events.

Smelling and seeing coffee beans.

"Madame de Pompadour as a Sultana," by Carle Van Loo, 1755. Two women with different levels of power
each have their hands on a cup of coffee, which was a new luxury product associated with the Turkish Empire.
"On the left, an African woman serving coffee is a reminder of two colonial commodities: coffee and enslaved people."
The exhibit had quite a few things to say about the role of slavery and colonialism in the rise of the three beverages.

A coffee grinder that once belonged to Madame de Pompadour.

A porcelain sultan riding an elephant, and a little Turkish coffee cup.

A bust of Joseph Addison whose newspaper, I learned, was one of the influences
encouraging English people to consume coffee.

"The Strong Family," (1732, detail showing tea table)

The exhibit included several wall-sized maps.

An amazing Sèvres tea and coffee service (1842-43)

Samples of chocolate from early recipes.

Outside the DIA cafe where we were about to have lunch: chocolate Christmas decorations.

Sacré Bleu by Christopher Moore

Author Christopher Moore has a very strange imagination, which is given free range in his novel Sacré Bleu. The principal character in this fantasy, which takes place between around 1870 and 1890, is a baker named Lucien who lives in Montmartre. Every morning his mother tests the quality of their just-baked bread by banging him in the head with a loaf; if it cracks just right, they're happy.

In addition to baking, Lucien is an aspiring painter. Though fictitious, he's surrounded by real painters and other figures in the artistic milieu of that time and place -- Toulouse Lautrec, Monet, Renoir, Theo Van Gogh (an art dealer and brother of the painter), Seurat, Gaugin, Whistler, Oscar Wilde and lots of others. An unusual feature of this novel: the hardcover version that I read is illustrated with paintings by the artists who appear in the story.

Sacré Bleu begins with the death of Vincent Van Gogh, and quickly moves on to Paris and many other real and fictional characters. When I started reading, I thought I would be bored by just another historical novel about the bohemian life of the Impressionists that's so well-known.

Jane Avril by Toulouse-Lautrec.
She appears in the novel.

Wrong!! It's a very strange and magical story about the color blue, the pigment ultramarine which comes from the stone Lapis Lazuli. It depicts a very vivid -- and imaginary -- figure called "The Colorman" and an even more mysterious woman who has many names and identities as she seduces one artist after another. These two supernatural beings, it appears, have interfered in the lives of artists throughout time. As the novel proceeds, the plot involves the efforts of Lucien, Toulouse-Lautrec, and a few others to discover just what role these evil spirits or maybe genies have played. More plot summary would spoil the suspense (yes, suspense!) as well as being kind of tedious.

I once heard a lecture about the amazing pigment ultramarine. It was extraordinarily expensive, and was especially desired for images of the Virgin Mary during the Renaissance. The fantasy that Moore weaves about it is much more amusing than the real history!

2016, Year in Review Part 2.

In my year in review part 1 yesterday, I summarized what I blogged in January-June, 2016, about food, travel, and life in general. You can check out each month of blog posts as listed in the sidebar to the right of this post to see all the details. Part 2, here, continues with July through December.

July: At Home

We spent the entire month of July at home! A summer highlight of Ann Arbor is the annual Art Fair.

One of the artists we admire the most: Marvin Blackmore

August: Kauaii, Hawaii

We had a beautiful stay on Kauaii, including enjoying some of the most beautiful beaches in the world, birdwatching in the rainforest, and eating some really wonderful meals.

Len about to go scuba diving on his birthday.

September: Labor Day in Fairfax, VA.

Miriam and Alice heading for their first day of school.

September: Galway, Ireland and Nearby Places.

We visited Arny and Tracy who are on Sabbatical in Galway for the fourth time. They have really become almost natives, and are wonderful tour guides.

Rainbow behind one of the towers at Clonmacnoise National Historic Site, County Offaly, Ireland. 

October: London, England.

From Ireland we went on to several days in London, visiting our friends John and Sheila, with a side trip to their favorite Saxon village and the coast, and meals at several remarkable restaurants. For me, the visits to the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Tate Modern, the British Museum, and the Goldsmith's Fair were all exciting and wonderful elements of the visit.

October: San Antonio and elsewhere in Texas

We traveled to San Antonio for a reunion with a group of old friends, then went down to the coast for a few days of birdwatching, and finally visited another old friend in Austin.

The Alamo.

Two Whooping Cranes which we saw from a boat trip on the coast of Texas.

November: Thanksgiving in Pittsburgh. 

Family at the Thanksgiving table.

December: Fairfax, VA and Washington, D.C.

Beautiful December day in Washington, D.C.

December: Home for the Holidays

December 24: he first night of Hanukkah and also Christmas Eve. We roasted a goose!

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year!

2016 Year in Review, Part 1

At the end of last year, I consolidated my blogging about food, travel, and life in general into this blog only. As a result, all travel posts have been here -- and we traveled a lot. Many of our trips had birds and wildlife as a focus, sometimes combining birdwatching with visits to friends or family.

I read a number of books this year, but I think fewer than most years. I didn't blog about all the books that I read. My favorite books this year were the four Neapolitan novels by Elena Ferrante, blogged here.

We did many things, ate some memorable meals, and visited quite a few new and familiar places in 2016. Below I've picked some highlights from January through July. For a complete description of the trips, check out each month of blog posts as listed in the sidebar to the right of this post. In my review part 2, I'll continue with a summary of July-December.

January: At Home

Maybe the most colorful dish I've cooked this year: from Ottolenghi's Jerusalem: Roasted sweet potatoes with green onions, peppers, figs, and balsamic reduction. On our later trip to London, we ate at Ottolenghi's restaurant.

February: Panama

Our travels in 2016 began in February with a week watching birds and other wildlife in Panama.

A sloth in a tree in Panama.

February: Florida

After returning to Miami, we rented a car and drove around in Florida for around 10 days, visiting relatives and watching still more birds.

Clown shoes at the Ringling Brothers Circus Museum, Sarasota, Florida.

March: Cape May, New Jersey

We spent one day in Lancaster, PA, with my brother and sister-in-law, then met Evelyn and her family in Cape May, N.J. for a weekend.

Miriam and Alice at Lobster House in Cape May.

March: Fairfax, VA and Washington, D.C.

After Cape May, we drove to Fairfax and spent a week visiting the family.

We viewed the cherry blossoms in Washington, D.C. during our visit to Fairfax.

April: "Birds and Art in Provence"

At the end of April and the beginning of May, we spent two weeks in France. First a tour titled "Birds and Art in Provence."

In the Camargue region near Arles: a flamingo and some of the famous white horses.

We not only went on a number of spectacular birdwatching and art-oriented tours
near Arles, we also enjoyed the open-air market in the town.
Above is a photo of a market stall selling bread and 15 kinds of macarons.

May: Paris

From Arles, we took the fast train to Paris and spent several days visiting friends and seeing a few of our favorite museums -- and one new museum.

The Musée du Quai Branly has been open for 10 years, but this was our first time at this unusual building, designed by Jean Nouvel. We enjoyed the collections of ethnographic materials.

May: Dinosaur National Monument and Provo, Utah.

Soon after we returned from Paris, we went to Provo, Utah, for a birthday conference for our friend Charlie. Before the conference we visited Vernal, Utah, to see Dinosaur National Monument and some very interesting prehistoric rock art.

A dinosaur bone with me for size.

Statue of Brigham Young at the Provo library where the conference was held.

May and June: Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, Israel.

Just a day after coming back from Utah, we flew to Tel Aviv, Israel, for a memorial conference for a friend. After the conference, we visited Len's cousin for a few days, and did some sightseeing in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and Caesarea.

The city of Jaffa, south of Tel Aviv. We walked along the sea front from
our hotel to the tower in the distance in this photo. Jaffa is the
oldest still-active port in the world.

Falafel at a restaurant in Abu Gosh near Jerusalem.

The second half of my Year in Review will be posted tomorrow!