Delicious - Hardcover

Haskell Smith, Mark

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0871138840 ISBN 13: 9780871138842

Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2005

Synopsis

Welcome to sunny Hawaii, where the palm trees sway, the tropical breezes blow, and a gangland-style turf war is erupting. Joseph is one of the best chefs in Honolulu, but these days the opakapaka and ono aren't the only things heating up. When a TV producer flies to the islands to film a pilot, a fight-to-the-finish breaks out over who will cater the shoot. Will it be Joseph and his hotheaded Samoan uncle, who have held a monopoly on the catering business for years? Or Big Jack Lacey, a trash-talking, lap dance-addicted stroke survivor from Las Vegas and his milque-toast son, a young man who wants to be a missionary but doesn't know the position. As far as Joseph's family is concerned, this is an invasion on par with Captain Cook, only this time the mainlanders have to be stopped before paradise is lost.
With the Teamsters unwilling to take sides and the Sin City boys enlisting the services of an ecstasy-popping ex-Marine hit man, hope comes in the form of Francis, a gay TV-movie producer on a drug-crazed bender after a bad breakup.

About this title

About the Author

Mark Haskell Smith is the author of Moist and is an award-winning screenwriter. He lives in Los Angeles. He likes to cook.

Reviews

Set in a seedy, sun-baked Hawaii that most tourists don't know exists, Smith's frenetic second novel (after Moist) begins with a flash-forward to a Greek tragedy of a luau. Roasting human flesh was not on the agenda for Joseph when he set out to become a professional chef, but a battle to keep the family catering business from being ruined by a greedy rival gradually drives him to desperation. The battle begins when a gay TV producer flies to the islands for a film shoot, sparking a contest over who will provide food for the set. Joseph, his uncle Sid and dimwitted cousin Wilson have been the only game in town, but a nasty, horny, recovering stroke victim with Mafia connections has come to Honolulu from Las Vegas to take over the film-catering industry. Sid is not about to let his paradise dream be wrecked, but then hit men are brought in. Meanwhile, Joseph must decide whether to follow his culinary dreams to New York City, support his uncle's war against the outsiders or indulge a gay suitor to save the family business - all of which leads to that luau from hell. At once sexy and repulsive, the novel manages to plant sharp moral and cultural barbs in its gorge-feast of a plot.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

In this darkly comic novel, Smith writes like Carl Hiaasen's oversexed cousin. Gifted Hawaiian chef Joseph and his uncle run a successful catering business in Oahu, making custom meals for the production crews of movies and TV shows. Then the Mob-connected owner of a Las Vegas catering company, who is secretly addicted to lap dancers, sinks $20 million into an effort to take over business on the island, and Joseph and his family draw on their heritage and cooking skills to fight back in unique fashion. Caught up in the madness are a gay TV producer whose recent breakup has fueled a hedonistic frenzy that causes him to painfully overdose on Viagra; his homely assistant, who, on the advice of a local pimp, gets a wild haircut that turns her into an androgynous sex symbol; and a hit man who takes too much Ecstasy and paddles off into the sunset. Veteran screenwriter Smith, in his second novel after Moist (2002), excels at cooking up a supremely weird atmosphere and spicing it up with equally weird sex and violence. Joanne Wilkinson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0871138840
• ISBN 13: 9780871138842
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 336