Review: The Mad Feast is This Year’s Fun and Frantic Cookbook
Matthew Gavin Frank’s previous book was about the discovery of the giant squid, and he has also written memoirs of working at a marijuana farm and an Italian vineyard. Given that unconventional publishing history and his background—he spent 20 years in the restaurant industry but is also a poet and creative writing teacher—it’s no surprise that his new book about America’s signature foods is no straightforward, one-genre affair. Instead, Frank describes The Mad Feast (Liveright; November 9, 2015) as a “spastic, lyrical anti-cookbook cookbook of sorts that also may be a fun and digressive revisionist take on U.S. history.” Indeed, it is the off-the-wall blend of memoir, travel, history and fiction that makes the book unique. This is the cookbook…