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Hit 7 - Immoveable Feast: A Paris Christmas (P.S.)
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List Price: $13.95
Our Price: $11.16
Your Save: $ 2.79 ( 20% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 394.26630944361
EAN: 9780061562334
ISBN: 0061562335
Label: Harper Perennial
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 288
Publication Date: 2008-10-01
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Release Date: 2008-09-23
Studio: Harper Perennial
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Editorial Reviews:
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A witty cultural and culinary education, Immoveable Feast is the charming, funny, and improbable tale of how a man who was raised on white bread—and didn't speak a word of French—unexpectedly ended up with the sacred duty of preparing the annual Christmas dinner for a venerable Parisian family. Ernest Hemingway called Paris "a moveable feast"—a city ready to embrace you at any time in life. For Los Angeles–based film critic John Baxter, that moment came when he fell in love with a French woman and impulsively moved to Paris to marry her. As a test of his love, his skeptical in-laws charged him with cooking the next Christmas banquet—for eighteen people in their ancestral country home. Baxter's memoir of his yearlong quest takes readers along his misadventures and delicious triumphs as he visits the farthest corners of France in search of the country's best recipes and ingredients. Irresistible and fascinating, Immoveable Feast is a warmhearted tale of good food, romance, family, and the Christmas spirit, Parisian style.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: Delectable, BUT
Comment: This book IS like a little feast. A savory narrative about French culture and cuisine, peppered with tidbits about Australia, a hint of India and a good measure of the Anglo/American influences on this writer and his love of food.
BUT, don't buy this sweet/piquant morsel based on the Amazon "Product Description." It was written by someone who did NOT read the book.
This is not "a test of love," nor a memoir of Baxter's "yearlong quest... as he visits the farthest corners of France in search of the country's best recipes and ingredients." In other words, this isn't a long culinary travelogue of France -- which would have been a blast.
The author begins to prepare his menu and assemble ingredients not over the space of a year, but during the week before Christmas, with most of the ingredients sought not far and wide, but along a 120km stretch of France's Atlantic coast.
Still, you'll enjoy this very "toothsome" book. Just don't expect the cover to reflect what's actually inside the book. (Hint: this doesn't actually depict a "Paris Christmas" at all.)
Customer Rating:
Summary: Feast for the Imagination
Comment: Baxter has a wonderfully eclectic mind that will start you off with a shopping list in Paris and end up in the memory of a long ago escapade with a former girlfriend, wife, or fellow writer, as he prepares a most spectacular Christmas meal for his extended French inlaws, all the more remarkable that he (an Australian) should be asked to cook the meal by a family steeped in the culinary and social history of France. The perfect holiday read, or for any winter moment, when you want to curl up and escape fora few hours, not to mention that he gives you interesting historical bits about the various items on his Christmas menu. What distinguishes this from the many other romantic memoirs of Paris now popular, is that it takes you so much further afield (as far as Mumbai, India). The only reason I was glad to get to the end was to be able to share it with others.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A delightful recipe.
Comment:
Take one part memoir
Throw in some french tradition
Add a dash of humor
A bit of history
and saturate with a love and passion for food
Voila: Baxter's Immoveable Feast
This is a lovely book, fast and easy to read to read. While planning a Christmas dinner menu, Baxter weaves in all the above elements and tells a very charming tale of French Christmas.
There's even an element of suspense ... Will his French family enjoy the non-traditional meal?
It's a wonderful book for food lovers, and has left me with a hankerin' for Christmas dinner.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Oh Louise
Comment: I was trying to find a book here on Amazon about French Christmas cooking when I stumbled upon this book. In fact, I thought there were some recipes in the book, but there is only a vague explanation of a couple dishes. However, that took nothing away from my enjoyment of this wonderful book!
The author's writing was very approachable, and allows the reader to run through the book. The story, however, was amazing and inspirational. It is filled with personal anecdotes from his life as he tells the journey of putting together a Christmas dinner for a traditional French family who knows their way around the kitchen. These short narratives might seem like filler to some, but I thought they were what gave the novel life, from his friend's experience of a Napoleon era wine, his trip to India for spices, and, in particular, his amazing daughter Louise.
While reading this book, Louise reminded me of the light that Pearl brought to the "Scarlet Letter." I am probably over-emphasizing her involvement in the novel, but her sophistication shines through and represents the character of France that is exhibited throughout the novel. Plus, as a 19-year-old, I am able to see how other people of the same age live in other parts of the world.
But, I digress, as the main story is just as fascinating to imagine, which in particular has inspired me to try and replicate such an event, sadly without the Roast Suckling Pig! So, if you are looking for a quick read for the weekend, with an insight into the French and their cooking, I cannot see how you could wrong with A Paris Christmas!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Moving book
Comment: I love the author's style of writing so much that after I am done with this review I am going to buy his other two books. It's a book that I cannot put down and eagerly turn the page to see what transpires next.
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