FEATURING NEW ESSAYS
This marvellous collection of over 60 pithy essays inspired by Visser’s column in Saturday Night magazine explores the cultural significance of everyday objects and phenomena such as jelly, high heels, beards, the colour red, tap-dancing and the Easter Bunny.
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MARGARET VISSER is an award-winning author and essayist. Her previous five books, all bestsellers, have met with international acclaim. Much Depends on Dinner won the Glenfiddich Prize for Food Book of the Year and was named one of the best books of the year by Publishers Weekly and The New York Times. The Rituals of Dinner won the IACP Literary Food Writing Award and the Jane Grigson Award, and was named a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Her most recent book, The Geometry of Love, also the subject of a prize-winning documentary film, was a finalist for the Charles Taylor Prize. A professor of classics at York University for 18 years, she now devotes her time to research and writing. Visser lives in Toronto, Paris and the south of France.
Visser moves on from the culture of food (The Rituals of Dinner, 1991, etc.) to the ``anthropology'' of everyday life, with a series of little essays that originally appeared in the Canadian weekly Saturday Night. It is only appropriate that someone whose introduction to North America 31 years ago was a flying mustard packet should be writing on ordinary things and events. In her introduction, Visser asserts that ``clues can be found to our culture's suppositions'' from an exploration of such randomly chosen but ubiquitous phenomena as baked beans, tipping, and Santa Claus (a particular favorite who turns up in several essays). Drawing on a combination of history, philology, anthropology, and sharp observation, Visser comments wittily on parades (``one of the few Dionysiac outlets still sanctioned by society as a whole''), the Easter Bunny, the invention of vinegar (whose name derives from the French for ``soured wine''), and spitting. Not surprisingly, given that her two previous books dealt with food history and lore, the essays on food and eating are the strongest ones here; an offering on the ingestion of organ meats is particularly clever and laughter-provoking. These essays (each of which is followed by a bibliography) were clearly not intended for consecutive reading, and sitting down with the book for long periods of time is not recommended. Read in large clumps, the essays begin to pall, and a tendency to the pedantic, which in smaller doses is relieved by Visser's warmth and humor, in larger swallows becomes almost overwhelming. The result is a book to be dipped into at random and in short bursts. Reminiscent of, but not as clever as, Roland Barthes's Mythologies. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
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Seller: Bahamut Media, Reading, United Kingdom
Paperback. Condition: Very Good. This book is in very good condition and will be shipped within 24 hours of ordering. The cover may have some limited signs of wear but the pages are clean, intact and the spine remains undamaged. This book has clearly been well maintained and looked after thus far. Money back guarantee if you are not satisfied. See all our books here, order more than 1 book and get discounted shipping. Seller Inventory # 6545-9780140253726
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Seller: Versandantiquariat Buchegger, Trier, Germany
kartoniert 20 cm Gut kein Schutzumschlag 306 S. / Sprache: englisch / 325 g / Zustand: Einband an Ecken leicht gestoßen, Namenseintrag auf vorderem Innendeckel, Buchblock leicht gebräunt, in Ordnung. Seller Inventory # 071067
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Seller: Dromanabooks, Newstead, VIC, Australia
Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Yellowed paper; Bibliography, index. Collection of articles from Saturday Night. 350gms weight; 8vo 8" - 9" tall; 314 pages. Seller Inventory # 33484
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Seller: THE CROSS Art + Books, Sydney, NSW, Australia
21.0 x 14.0cms, 314pp, very good paperback & cover (tanning paper) This is a compilation of Visser's popular articles for Toronto's Saturday Night magazine. They offer concise socio-anthropological insights into the things that Western societies use and they bring the users into focus. They include: stockings, plum pudding, high heel shoes, suntans, Santa Claus, avocados, tipping, umbrellas etc. Seller Inventory # 129718
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paperback. Condition: Very Good. Very Good. book. Seller Inventory # D8S0-3-M-0140253726-4
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