Rick Bass is the best—perhaps the only—choice to narrate his account of visiting mentors and admired fellow writers to cook for them. His light Southern accent is pleasant, his voice warm and strong, and he seems honest, humble, and engaging, even endearing. Unfortunately, he reads much of the audiobook in “poet voice,” a mannered intoning as of a sacred text. Most sentences end on a rising note, as if to give the impression of great solemnity and high feeling. The unnaturalness of “poet voice” distracts by diverting attention to itself. Its preciosity and straining for effect are off-putting. When Bass abstains from it, the book is likable; at length, it’s hard to bear. One longs for the falling cadence of a simple declarative sentence. W.M. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
The Traveling Feast: On the Road and at the Table with My Heroes
The Traveling Feast: On the Road and at the Table with My Heroes
Audiobook (Digital)
Free with a B&N Audiobooks Subscription | Cancel Anytime
Already Subscribed?
Sign in to Your BN.com Account
Related collections and offers
FREE
with a B&N Audiobooks Subscription
Overview
From his bid to become Eudora Welty's lawn boy to the time George Plimpton offered to punch him in the nose, lineage has always been important to Rick Bass. Now at a turning point-in his midfifties, with his long marriage dissolved and his grown daughters out of the house-Bass strikes out on a journey of thanksgiving. His aim: to make a memorable meal for each of his mentors, to express his gratitude for the way they have shaped not only his writing but his life.
The result, an odyssey to some of America's most iconic writers, is also a record of self-transformation as Bass seeks to recapture the fire that drove him as a young man. Along the way we join in escapades involving smuggled contraband, an exploding grill, a trail of blood through Heathrow airport, an episode of dog-watching with Amy Hempel in Central Park, and a near run-in with plague-ridden prairie dogs on the way to see Lorrie Moore, as well as heartwarming and bittersweet final meals with the late Peter Matthiessen, John Berger, and Denis Johnson. Poignant, funny, and wistful, The Traveling Feast is a guide to living well and an unforgettable adventure that nourishes and renews the spirit.
Editorial Reviews
…Bass serves up a rich smorgasbord of a memoir, truffled with pungent anecdote, sometimes funny, sometimes sorrowful, always savory. The melancholic power of these reunions is heightened by the reader's awareness that some of these literary lions (Peter Matthiessen, Denis Johnson, John Berger) were soon to roar their last. But there's also abundant hilarity, usually provided by Bass's mountain-man approach to the dinner table.
★ 05/07/2018
In this exuberant literary road trip, Bass (For a Little While) takes on the roll of a roving wordsmith caterer, traveling the country to visit the writers who have inspired him and thanking them by preparing them home-cooked meals: “The least I could do was feed them in return.” Over the course of three years, Bass—with writing student mentees in tow—showed up at the doors of Peter Matthiessen, John Berger, and Barry Lopez, among others. The conversation inevitably flowed through a series of wonderful, sincere encounters, as with Matthiessen, battling leukemia, with whom Bass and aspiring writer Erin discussed the differences between writing fiction and nonfiction “while eating a soup of fresh-dug parsnips (tarragon, butter, garlic, vermouth).” Bass ruminates on what makes good writing and great writers (“how hard it is to keep that edge. To view the world always like a hawk”) while obsessing over his multicourse gourmet feasts with nearly the same devotion to detail (“The kitchen is a whirlwind of aromas: mussels, scallops, and a sharp bite of ginger” in a paella that he prepared for Lorrie Moore). The camaraderie of like-minded literary folk is infectious, and Bass’s account of hauling the meat of an elk he had shot in Montana—now thawing and bleeding through its packaging—through Heathrow airport to David Sedaris’s quaint British cottage is a miniature classic. This is a rich bounty of a book. (June)
"A culinary catharsis...The Traveling Feast serves up a rich smorgasbord of a memoir, truffled with pungent anecdote, sometimes funny, sometimes sorrowful, always savory. The melancholic power of these reunions is heightened by the reader's awareness that some of these literary lions (Peter Matthiessen, Denis Johnson, John Berger) were soon to roar their last. But there's also abundant hilarity, usually provided by Bass's mountain-man approach to the dinner table...A soul-nourishing, road-burning act of tribute."—Liesl Schillinger, New York Times Book Review
"This is a series of stories about travel and food...but it becomes more a story of life morals. Bass is collecting advice and credos from each writer in search of inspiration to move forward in his life and career...Each host's approach to life, love, nature, or time is revealed with quotes that will stick with you."—Ashley Day, USA Today
"At 55, after a divorce that left him reeling, Bass lost his hunger for art—and stopped writing. To rekindle the spark, he reached back to his roots, setting out once more to become a student...The cure took, and this soul-satisfying book is the proof."—O, The Oprah Magazine
"The Traveling Feast is by turns ruminative, hilarious and melancholy."—Jenny Shank, Dallas Morning News
"In this exuberant literary road trip, Bass takes on the role of a roving wordsmith caterer, traveling the country to visit the writers who have inspired him and thanking them by preparing them home-cooked meals...Conversation inevitably flows through a series of wonderful, sincere encounters...Bass ruminates on what makes good writing and great writers while obsessing over his multicourse gourmet feasts with nearly the same devotion to detail...The camaraderie of like-minded literary folk is infectious, and Bass's account of hauling the meat of an elk he had a shot in Montana—now thawing and bleeding through its packaging—through Heathrow airport to David Sedaris's quaint British cottage is a miniature classic. This is a rich bounty of a book."—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Bass's reflective, funny, and generous chronicle of culinary adventures and nourishing literary encounters will renew readers' appreciation for stories and storytellers and how literature guides us back 'to some deeper, older place.'"—Booklist (starred review)
"In his latest, fiction and nature writer Bass pens an entertaining and love-infused gastronomical memoir...Dripping with tasty anecdotes, literary tales, and great food, this joyful book is delightful."—Kirkus
"This stirring meditation on time, loss, and change—and gratin—tastefully blends road-trip-meets-grocery trip tales from an author's quest to cook for his literary heroes."—Shelf Awareness
PRAISE FOR RICK BASS:
"A literary titan...His world-building is beautiful, crisp, and perfect."
—New York Times Book Review
"Bass's prose is charged with a lyrical intensity rare in American fiction. The beauty of his sentences recalls the stylistic finesse of Cormac McCarthy and Willa Cather."
—Chicago Tribune
"Extravagant...Writing of this quality creates a stillness in the mind."—Time
"One of the very best writers we have."
—San Francisco Chronicle
"A master...A singular voice whose early promise continues to be an enduring gift to readers."—Boston Globe
"Durable and authentic...A writer who can both frighten and amaze."—Jim Harrison
"Both mythic and intimate...A virtuoso."—O, the Oprah Magazine
"Bass can lift a common moment into a shared experience that is universal."—Seattle Times
Rick Bass is the best—perhaps the only—choice to narrate his account of visiting mentors and admired fellow writers to cook for them. His light Southern accent is pleasant, his voice warm and strong, and he seems honest, humble, and engaging, even endearing. Unfortunately, he reads much of the audiobook in “poet voice,” a mannered intoning as of a sacred text. Most sentences end on a rising note, as if to give the impression of great solemnity and high feeling. The unnaturalness of “poet voice” distracts by diverting attention to itself. Its preciosity and straining for effect are off-putting. When Bass abstains from it, the book is likable; at length, it’s hard to bear. One longs for the falling cadence of a simple declarative sentence. W.M. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
2018-04-03
Have skillet, will travel; or, one writer's "pilgrimage of gratitude and generosity."In his latest, fiction and nature writer Bass (For a Little While: New and Selected Stories, 2016, etc.) pens an entertaining and love-infused gastronomical memoir. In his mid-50s and recovering from an agonizing divorce, the author decided there was no better time to give payback to the authors who had mentored him over the years and to recharge his writing battery. He wanted to see them in person and cook them a luscious meal—including wild game from his Montana freezer—as a way to say thanks. Joining him along the way were students he was mentoring. The on-and-off, three-year journey began on Long Island, where he visited "one of my greatest literary heroes, Peter Matthiessen," who was struggling with leukemia. "Readers can enter his work from any direction and become lost, in the best way, changed forever," writes Bass, who admires his "life of artistic as well as political integrity." He also visited the "good witch of Manhattan," Amy Hempel, and they talked about the renowned writer and editor Gordon Lish, "captain fiction," who edited Hempel, Bass, and Raymond Carver in the 1980s. Next up is Idaho and Denis Johnson, the "hermit, the recluse," who was also ill (he died in 2017). Bass is a huge fan of his prose, "often lean, sizzling like a wire stripped of its protective coating." In Arizona, he stayed with Doug Peacock, "my most cherished mentor." There's a trip to meet the "funniest man in the world," David Sedaris (London), and the "old man of the mountains," John Berger (French Alps). Other destinations include Gary Snyder, Barry Lopez, Tom McGuane, Joyce Carol Oates, and the homes of Mississippians Eudora Welty and William Faulkner.Dripping with tasty anecdotes, literary tales, and great food, this joyful book is delightful.
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940170150038 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Hachette Audio |
| Publication date: | 06/05/2018 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
Videos
