Monday, January 04, 2016

Ten top kitchens in literature

John O'Connell is a former Senior Editor at Time Out; he now writes for the Guardian and the Times. His new book is The Book of Spice.

One of O'Connell's top ten kitchens in literature, as shared at the Guardian:
American Psycho by Brett Easton Ellis (1991)

Patrick Bateman’s description of his kitchen is probably the most exhaustingly and teemingly empty description of anything in the whole of postwar American literature. This is just a taste: “Next to the Panasonic bread baker and the Salton Pop-Up coffee maker is the Cremina sterling silver espresso maker (which is, oddly, still warm) that I got at Hammacher Schlemmer (the thermal-insulated stainless-steel espresso cup and the saucer and spoon are sitting by the sink, stained) and the Sharp Model R-1810A Carousel II microwave oven with revolving turntable which I use when I heat up the other half of the bran muffin.” And so on.
Read about another entry on the list.

American Psycho appears on Seth Grahame-Smith's list of six favorite books about literal and metaphorical monsters, Ginni Chen's list of the eight grinchiest characters in literature, Whitney Collins's top sixteen list of totally awesome books that every Gen Xer needs, Chrissie Gruebel's top six list of fictional fashion icons, Jonathan Lee's list of the ten best office dramas in print and on screen, John Mullan's lists of ten of the best bankers in literature and ten of the best zoos in literature, Richard Gwyn's list of ten books in which things end badly, Nick Brooks' top ten list of literary murderers and Chris Power's list of his six top books on the 1980s. It is a book that Nick Cross "Finished Reading but Wanted My Time Back Afterwards."

--Marshal Zeringue