Twain's Feast Book Review by ChristineMM

Title: Twain's Feast: Searching for America's Lost Foods in the Footsteps of Samuel Clemens

Author: Andrew Beahrs

Publication: Penguin Press, June 2010

My Star Rating: 5 stars out of 5 = I Love It

My Summary Statement: Excellent Storytelling by an Informed Food Writer – A Great Escape Read for Foodies

When I received this book I assumed it was what I call a project memoir, where a person wants to know something and travels around and does research and shares what they learned in writing and bundles their essays up and publishes a book. A pure project memoir is usually done by a novice who knows nothing of the topic and learns everything along the way, and is written from the perspective of a newbie. These are sometimes published by laypeople hobbyists or amateurs who are not writers, and as a result the books are sometimes uneven or just mediocre pieces of writing, with storytelling skills being a crapshoot. This is NOT a project memoir. And that is a good thing.

This book is more of a travelogue than a project memoir. It was written by a person who going into the project, already has a decent knowledge base about food and gourmet food topics. Beahrs is an experienced and skilled food writer, and is an excellent storyteller. Thus, this book is well written and interesting.

Beahrs set out on a journey to sample foods today that Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) mentioned in his book A Tramp Abroad, about a hundred years ago. A challenge is the world has changed, the landscape has changed, and not all the foods are really available (wild prairie chicken being one). Some foods are no longer daily staples for poor people but are served once a year at a festival (raccoon).

Beahrs’ writing pulled me in. He writes with a good flow from topic to topic and weaves between present day observations to history and facts and then to his personal opinions and experiences. This weaving in and out is seamless. He is able to write in a way that never was boring yet educated and discussed facts and things I never thought I’d care to know. Reading this book was an enjoyable escape reading experience.

I should also mention I am a home slow food cook and from scratch baker and enjoy fine dining in restaurants whenever I can, so learning about food and I like reading about food.

If you enjoy good storytelling escape reads, and are a foodie or are a big fan of Mark Twain, or enjoy travelogues or books about the history of food in America, you will enjoy this book.

I rate this book 5 stars = I Love It for the excellent storytelling, engaging escape read and interesting foodie subject matter.


Disclosure: I received an ARC of this book from Amazon.com’s Vine program. I was not obligated to blog about the book. For my blog’s full disclosure statement see the link near the top of my blog’s sidebar.