What do I do to de-stress... write book reviews....
I basically gobbled down the book in hours... I felt drawn by Cliff Fadiman's (the wine-lover) love of wine and am fascinated by how anyone can be so knowledgeable and passionate over a fermented beverage. Cliff Fadiman was a famous host on a radio talkshow (Information Please), critic (of books), judge (book of the month club), editor, writer (Joys of Wine, etc), etc., a multi-hyphenated somebody.
Guess the book was sort of a tribute to him by his daughter. Born to a lower middle class Jewish family, Fadiman was ashamed of his family background and did his utmost best to crawl up the social ladder and denouncing any association with his faith. He was successful in doing so and was educated at Columbia and forged a lifelong career in the world of books (after failing to get a job as an academic), proving his parents wrong (they thought he would never make a single cent with his relentless reading). Although Fadiman was successful and wealthy enough, he felt inadequate in the social grace department and felt as if he was beneath those who were born into money.
Perhaps as part of his effort to feel and look "cultivated", he threw himself deeply into the world of wines and literature, spending a fortune on his wine collection, journaling down all the wines he had tasted. The wines he loved were mainly the premier crus from the bordeaux region and cost a bomb now.
I admire his zest for life- he never stopped learning and working even when he turned blind in his late 80s but hated the fact that he was a misogynist. It must have been fun though being with an intellect and hearing what he had to offer.
A pity both his son and daughter did not turn out to be wine-lovers. Anne Fadiman at one point thought she might be genetically flawed when she could not for the life of her appreciate the taste of wine like her father. turned out she has a tongue full of papillae, more so than the average "taster", in other words, she was a super-taster and could not tolerate the strong astringent taste of alcohol. One would expect a super-taster to be able to discern and enjoy the complexities in wine more so than the average person, e.g. for me, I never could find >2-3 notes in a wine. I guess it's not so bad to be an average taster afterall.
The ending made me tear a bit, when Fadiman died. Guess I just cant deal with death very well.
Anyway the book made me wanna buy The Joys of Wine
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