In The Devil's Garden: A Sinful History Of Forbidden Food (2003) - Plot & Excerpts
Strange but for once the book about food did not made me run to the fridge, in fact it had quite opposite effect and literary killed any notion of appetite.The subject is fascinating - food as taboo trough the history - with all different and colourful anecdotes Bill Bryson usually throws out of his sleeve but this author is not Bryson and he kind of enjoys more in gleefully presenting oddities and nastiness about what people considered delicacies at various points trough centuries. The sheer volume of noted bibliography shows that Allen took his obsession very seriously - there are countless stories about societies being suspicious of new unknown objects, adamant of what is proper to cook, how to prepare the meals and even with whom its supposed to dine with. The unfortunate Spanish lady Beatriz Lopez who got burned on a stake (while church chorus sang along to drown out her screams) because she used oil (gasp) in her cooking is just one example of how ridiculously fussy and unforgiving our ancestors were - after reading this, I feel guilty about poring olive oil on my salad and lucky that Spanish inquisition can't see me (I'm sure they would have found thousand and one reason to burn me anyway). Today we take it for granted that we can enjoy fruit & meat & products from all over the world, but according to this book people were darn serious about it and often mixed everything up with religion, so God help you if you took a wrong bite.Though not really as exciting as I hoped it would be, the book still kept my attention to the end and somewhere along the lines pointed at two interesting ideas. This is something that has been mention only in passing but I remember thinking about it:- could it be that Israel's "Sons of Abraham" and Indian "Brahmins" share same primordial roots somewhere in a forgotten history?- the idea of Eden not as a specific place but a time when all living beings on Earth were vegetarian and lived in harmony. Once the climate changed and vegetation became rare, survival depended on proteins and first blood was shared - killing not to protect the territory but to feed changed inhabitants of Earth forever and effectively started the whole chain reaction that led to humans becoming hunters (and inventing a whole bunch of things in order to get that meat). I kind of started to think that the whole Eve/Apple idea was lost in translation and that perhaps its all about meat and killing, more than anything else - perhaps story of Eden is idea of vegetarian world that once was and no killing was necessary.
Once I got past the subtitle for this book, which isn't entirely accurate, I really enjoyed it. It bothered me at first that Allen didn't really write about forbidden foods altogether. He also wrote about food that caused trouble and food that carried significant meaning for various cultural and religious groups. But then, I realized that as much as a title matters, I was already reading the book anyway, and it didn't really matter that the book strayed from it's titular guidelines.The structure of the book, organized by the seven deadly sins, was interesting. It led Allen to discuss food such as garlic, tomatoes, bushmeat, and communion wafers in fascinating and unexpected ways. The book is very informative, offering historical, economic, cultural, and religious backgrounds for why we eat and don't eat what we eat and don't eat. There were many facts that I never heard of before and aspects of food and of eating that I never considered. I really enjoyed the final chapter, a summation of the information offered, in which Allen reflects on why food taboos have mostly faded and what this means for our lives and our manners and values. Allen's tone is fun and easy to follow. Sometimes, he's irreverent, but this is a secular book, and he treats all religions in the same way, sort of poking fun at their taboos and customs, sort of trying to understand them. He discusses Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism, and Islam in the same way, although he discusses Christianity and Judaism the most, probably because those are the biggest religious influences on the West. Although he does discuss Eastern cultures, his focus is on European and American food interests. If I had one beef with Allen's tone it's that it does verge on disrespectful at times.Overall, this is an enlightening, funny, and entertaining book. I would definitely recommend it to readers interested in learning more about food, culture, and how the two are inseparable from each other and from our psyches.
What do You think about In The Devil's Garden: A Sinful History Of Forbidden Food (2003)?
This book combines three of my favorite reading topics: history, theology, and food. Totally impressed with Allen's anthropological approach and keen eye to historical detail regarding the dialogue between people and their relationship with food over the ages. Highlights for me include: 1 - Garden of Eden, was it an apple or a tomato? 2 - Pythagoras, the world's first intellectual vegetarian! 3 - How the link between aggression and eating in our brains leads potato chip manufacturers to making extra crispy, crunchy chips/crisps.
—Brooke
The Devil's Cup is a fun read. In part because the tale spinning is tightly linked with the author. Sure I read it taking everything with a grain of salt. Unfortunately, in this book, the author veers away from that in the text (although it does surface in the end notes). So he outrageous statements are just that, and even fictitious although presented as highly probable. I also found the writing lacked connectivity. The food items weren't linked in the writing but rather expounded on in a list fashion after being sorted into one of the eight deadly Christaan sins. (Which was odd since food items and customs are pulled from the whole world.) I found the lack of flow disruptive.Disappointing. I didn't finish.
—Mckinley
I started this book with enthusiasm for the subject. I soon lost that feeling. The author cared more about being titillating than informative. There is nothing wrong about writing about sex but don't mask it behind the pretense of another subject. The book also seemed poorly researched and devoid of information. I suppose the size of the book in comparison to the subject matter should have clued me in. I received the book as a gift as I'd put it on a to-read wish list without having actually seen the book. Had I had a chance to flip through it, I wouldn't have purchased it.There are many other books out there about spices, about temptation, and about societal taboos that are much more worth your time that this book.
—Meghan
