For many, cooking is simply the mechanical act of reproducing standard recipes. To Maryse Cond , however, cooking implies creativity and personal invention, on par with the complexity of writing a story. A cook, she explains, uses spices and flavors the same way an author chooses the music and meaning of words. In Of Morsels and Marvels, Cond takes us on a literary journey around places she has travelled to in India, Indonesia, and South Africa. She highlights the tastes and culinary traditions that are fascinating examples of a living museum. Such places, Cond explains, provide important insights into lesser-known aspects of contemporary life. One anecdote illustrates what becomes of the standard Antillean dishes of fish stew and goat curry by two Antilleans who own a restaurant in Sydney, Australia. Cuisine changes not only according to the individual cook but also adapts to foreign skies under which it is created. The author also recounts personal memories of her lifelong relationship with cooking, such as when Ad lia, her family's servant, wrongly blames little Maryse for mixing raisins with fish and using her imagination in the kitchen. Blending travel with gastronomy, this enchanting volume from the winner of the 2018 Alternative Nobel Prize will delight all who marvel at the wonders of the kitchen or seek to taste the world.
About the Author
Born in Guadeloupe in 1937, Maryse Condé has lived in Africa and a traveled throughout the world. She first won international acclaim for Children of Segu, a novel about Black African experience and the slave trade. Her other writings include the novels I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem, Tree of Life, and Crossing the Mangrove.
Richard Philcox is one of the leading translators of Third-World Francophone literature in the world today. He has published translations of six of Condé’s novels, including, most recently, Crossing the Mangrove.
Leah D. Hewitt is a professor of French at Amherst College and the author of Autobiographical Tightropes: Simone de Beauvoir, Nathalie Sarraute, Marguerite Duras, Monique Wittig, and Maryse Condé (Nebraska 1990).
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