The Traveling Feast

Starred review from May 7, 2018
In this exuberant literary road trip, Bass (For a Little While) takes on the roll of a roving wordsmith caterer, traveling the country to visit the writers who have inspired him and thanking them by preparing them home-cooked meals: “The least I could do was feed them in return.” Over the course of three years, Bass—with writing student mentees in tow—showed up at the doors of Peter Matthiessen, John Berger, and Barry Lopez, among others. The conversation inevitably flowed through a series of wonderful, sincere encounters, as with Matthiessen, battling leukemia, with whom Bass and aspiring writer Erin discussed the differences between writing fiction and nonfiction “while eating a soup of fresh-dug parsnips (tarragon, butter, garlic, vermouth).” Bass ruminates on what makes good writing and great writers (“how hard it is to keep that edge. To view the world always like a hawk”) while obsessing over his multicourse gourmet feasts with nearly the same devotion to detail (“The kitchen is a whirlwind of aromas: mussels, scallops, and a sharp bite of ginger” in a paella that he prepared for Lorrie Moore). The camaraderie of like-minded literary folk is infectious, and Bass’s account of hauling the meat of an elk he had shot in Montana—now thawing and bleeding through its packaging—through Heathrow airport to David Sedaris’s quaint British cottage is a miniature classic. This is a rich bounty of a book.

May 15, 2018

After an unexpected, painful divorce, author (For a Little While; All the World To Hold Us) and memoirist Bass opted for a road trip to prepare a memorable meal for his mentors. To add to the fun and flavor, the author describes some of the ingredients he will use, such as freshly dug parsnips. He first dines with the late novelist Peter Matthiessen in New York. Joyce Carol Oates preferred a restaurant in Princeton, NJ. Bass confesses that he was so in awe of her that he hardly noticed what they ate. Terry Tempest Williams lives in Jackson Hole, WY. Despite being ill, she continues working on The Hour of Land, about her political journey through America's national parks. The feast concludes in Bass's home state of Mississippi at the Conference on the Book. There he cooks for Mississippians who were with him from the beginning, an apt conclusion for this unusual entry. VERDICT This literary travelog is ideal for fans of Bass and the authors he celebrates. [See Prepub Alert, 1/8/18.]--Susan G. Baird, formerly with Oak Lawn P.L., IL

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 15, 2018
Have skillet, will travel; or, one writer's "pilgrimage of gratitude and generosity."In his latest, fiction and nature writer Bass (For a Little While: New and Selected Stories, 2016, etc.) pens an entertaining and love-infused gastronomical memoir. In his mid-50s and recovering from an agonizing divorce, the author decided there was no better time to give payback to the authors who had mentored him over the years and to recharge his writing battery. He wanted to see them in person and cook them a luscious meal--including wild game from his Montana freezer--as a way to say thanks. Joining him along the way were students he was mentoring. The on-and-off, three-year journey began on Long Island, where he visited "one of my greatest literary heroes, Peter Matthiessen," who was struggling with leukemia. "Readers can enter his work from any direction and become lost, in the best way, changed forever," writes Bass, who admires his "life of artistic as well as political integrity." He also visited the "good witch of Manhattan," Amy Hempel, and they talked about the renowned writer and editor Gordon Lish, "captain fiction," who edited Hempel, Bass, and Raymond Carver in the 1980s. Next up is Idaho and Denis Johnson, the "hermit, the recluse," who was also ill (he died in 2017). Bass is a huge fan of his prose, "often lean, sizzling like a wire stripped of its protective coating." In Arizona, he stayed with Doug Peacock, "my most cherished mentor." There's a trip to meet the "funniest man in the world," David Sedaris (London), and the "old man of the mountains," John Berger (French Alps). Other destinations include Gary Snyder, Barry Lopez, Tom McGuane, Joyce Carol Oates, and the homes of Mississippians Eudora Welty and William Faulkner.Dripping with tasty anecdotes, literary tales, and great food, this joyful book is delightful.

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Rick Bass is the best--perhaps the only--choice to narrate his account of visiting mentors and admired fellow writers to cook for them. His light Southern accent is pleasant, his voice warm and strong, and he seems honest, humble, and engaging, even endearing. Unfortunately, he reads much of the audiobook in "poet voice," a mannered intoning as of a sacred text. Most sentences end on a rising note, as if to give the impression of great solemnity and high feeling. The unnaturalness of "poet voice" distracts by diverting attention to itself. Its preciosity and straining for effect are off-putting. When Bass abstains from it, the book is likable; at length, it's hard to bear. One longs for the falling cadence of a simple declarative sentence. W.M. � AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine

Starred review from May 15, 2018
Bass (For a Little While, 2016), whose memoiristic nonfiction and keenly imaginative fiction are propelled by ardent observations of the living world, found himself at a disquieting juncture that prompted him to look back to those who mentored him when he was an oil geologist in Mississippi, trying to teach himself how to write on his lunch hours, and to think about how he can, in turn, best mentor others. This led Bass to embark on pilgrimages of gratitude, during which he and a student visited and cooked sumptuous meals for writers who have inspired him. This traveling feast for body and soul delivered Bass and his companions to West Sussex, England, to party with David Sedaris; Central Park to picnic with Amy Hempel; and Madison, Wisconsin, for dinner with Lorrie Moore and Mary Gordon. Bass sets every scene with sensuous precision backed by extraordinary candor as he muses over time and age; writing, solitude, and community, while incisively portraying John Berger, Peter Matthiessen, and Denis Johnson (all now deceased), Douglas Peacock, Gary Snyder, Barry Lopez, and Terry Tempest Williams. Bass' reflective, funny, and generous chronicle of culinary adventures and nourishing literary encounters will renew readers' appreciation for stories and storytellers and how literature guides us back to some deeper, older place. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)