Name: The food of a younger land
ISBN: 9781594488658

a portrait of American food : before the national highway system, before chain restaurants, and before frozen food, when the nation's food was seasonal, regional, and traditional : from the lost WPA files

The food of a younger land

Jeni Enjaian

Disclaimer: I did not listen to the last section of the book thanks to forgetting to stop my iPod when I put it away. I wasn't really into the book especially not enough to try to figure out where I had left off. This review is based on the first two thirds or so. 

I did not like the narrator. It's one that I've heard before and while he isn't awful, he is not engaging and has a cadence almost perfectly tuned to lull a reader to sleep. 

When the book first started I really enjoyed it. The author started by describing the project and a few of the events leading up to it. 

After this section finished though I because increasingly turned off by all the quotations. This is due in large part to two things. One, I was unfamiliar with the book's subtitle and purpose. I thought it was a history of the project or at least a work that gleaned heavily from these documents. Two, the audiobook format makes it difficult to discern the starting and ending points of the quotation. Neither of those two points is a mark against the book. They simply contributed to my dislike. 

Since I love travel, I liked a few parts of the book. For the most part though, I battled severe disinterest as well as dozing brought on by the narrator and lack of stimulating content. I think this could have been a much better book if the author had created a narrative of his own instead of "copy and pasting" most of the original essays, including recipes, into his book. 

Unfortunately, I can't recommend this book.

The food of a younger land a portrait of American food : before the national highway system, before chain restaurants, and before frozen food, when the nation's food was seasonal, regional, and traditional : from the lost WPA files

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