Toast: The Story of a Boy's Hunger

by Nigel SLATER | Biographies & Memoirs |
ISBN: 000739361X Global Overview for this book
Registered by TheGreenMan of York, North Yorkshire United Kingdom on 2/26/2019
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This book is in the wild! This Book is Currently in the Wild!
2 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by TheGreenMan from York, North Yorkshire United Kingdom on Tuesday, February 26, 2019
From the back cover:

" 'Toast' is Nigel Slater's award-winning story of a childhood remembered through food. Whether relating his mother's ritual burning of the toast, his father's dreaded Boxing Day stew or such culinary highlights of the day such as Arctic Roll and Grilled Grapefruit (then considered something of a status symbol in Wolverhampton), this remarkable memoir vividly recreates daily life in sixties suburban England.

Nigel's likes and dislikes, aversions and sweet-toothed weaknesses form a fascinating backdrop to this incredibly moving and deliciously evocative portrait of childhood, adolescence and sexual awakening."

Journal Entry 2 by TheGreenMan at York, North Yorkshire United Kingdom on Tuesday, February 26, 2019
Picked up cheaply, especially for BookCrossing purposes.

Planning to release at this evening's 'Authors-Beginning-With-N'-themed BC Meetup being held at The Brigantes in York from 7pm onwards... ('N' is for Nigel)

Released 5 yrs ago (2/26/2019 UTC) at Brigantes Bar & Brasserie OBCZ / Meetup Venue in York, North Yorkshire United Kingdom

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

releasing, as promised...

Journal Entry 4 by LouiseB79 at York, North Yorkshire United Kingdom on Tuesday, March 26, 2019
Picked up at the York BookCrossing meetup. I didn't enjoy the adaptation of this at all, but I'm told the book is better!

Journal Entry 5 by LouiseB79 at York, North Yorkshire United Kingdom on Monday, April 1, 2019
Well, I liked it a bit more than the adaptation, but I still found bits of it jarring and uncomfortable. Toast is a highly selective memoir which gives a series of more-or-less chronological vignettes based around different foodstuffs. Where it works well is in the evocative descriptions of now-defunct sweets and fashions in cooking from the 60s and 70s. For a chef, Slater isn't at all snobbish about liking the things that he likes, even such lowbrow items as Fray Bentos pies and Sherbet Fountains.

It becomes more problematic when it comes to the depiction of his stepmother, who he is quite open about disliking because she replaced his mother and he saw her as a gold-digger. A bit of reading around the subject online suggests that not everyone who was around at the time (including his barely-mentioned stepsisters) agrees with his portrayal of Joan, and it seems rather unfair that he waited until after she had died to take her character apart, since she obviously has no right of reply. The implication that she brought on his father's fatal heart attack by deliberately over-feeding him is particularly nasty.

That said, Slater makes no particular effort to paint himself as a likeable person and even seems to revel in how unpleasant he was during particular episodes. If he is unkind about others, I suppose you could say he justifies it by giving himself exactly the same treatment.

Released 4 yrs ago (4/23/2019 UTC) at Brigantes Bar & Brasserie OBCZ / Meetup Venue in York, North Yorkshire United Kingdom

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

Released at the York BookCrossing meetup.

Journal Entry 7 by TheGreenMan at York, North Yorkshire United Kingdom on Wednesday, April 24, 2019
Well, since no-one picked it up last night, I took it home with me. I've been meaning to read it for a while now - though it will have to be during the day... as reading this at my usual time for reading books (in bed, just before going to sleep) will inevitably make me hungry and lead to inappropriate night-snacking...!

Journal Entry 8 by TheGreenMan at York, North Yorkshire United Kingdom on Saturday, February 24, 2024
Since I've gone off the prospect of reading this, rather than hang onto it any longer, I am releasing it back into the wonderful world of BookCrossing. I'm planning to release it at this Tuesday evening's BC Meetup - which is being held at The Eagle & Child in York from 7.15pm onwards...

Journal Entry 9 by TheGreenMan at Eagle and Child in York, North Yorkshire United Kingdom on Saturday, February 24, 2024

Released 2 wks ago (2/27/2024 UTC) at Eagle and Child in York, North Yorkshire United Kingdom

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

releasing, as promised...

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