Gastronomy and Literature: The Perfect Mix

My favorite books are those that include food in some form, preferably in full descriptions of the way it was prepared and how it was presented.

So much of social interactions these days involves food. I'm talking about when people actually get together and talk, not fake communication like Facebook and other so-called 'social media'. Before long, if today's trend continues, no one will talk face to face (forget Skype-type chat), instead relying on impersonal contacts, if that.

Unlike so many people I know, I still read books. Real books, not e-book readers. Poetry is my latest passion. Recently I thought about all the wonderful food written about in the many books I've read. Here are my five favorite references to food:

1. 'Strawberries, and only strawberries...the best fruit in England', in Jane Austen's Emma.

2. The meal at the college Oxbridge, with its sole, partridges and pudding, in Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own.

3. Cliche, perhaps, but the gorgeous little formed cookies -- madeleines -- from Marcel Proust's Remembrance of Things Past.

4. The 'crusty bread rolls filled with chunks of brie and minced garlic drizzled with olive oil and baked until the brie was bubbly', in Supper, a poem in Garrison Keillor's 77 Love Sonnets.

5. The freshest tomatoes, basil and garlic for pasta, and the wild mushrooms and truffles, in Peter Mayle's A Year in Provence.

For those of you salivating over those food references, and perhaps wanting more, here is the rest of the meal in Keillor's sonnet. It's enough to make you dash to your nearest farmers market and grocery: 'salmon with dill and lemon and whole-wheat couscous baked with garlic and fresh ginger, and a hill of green beans and carrots roasted with honey and tofu.'

Jane Austen and Zombies

Clive, were you involved any way in mixing zombies with my beloved Jane Austen for the book, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies? I just heard about this book, but it's been on the Amazon best-seller list for awhile. Seth Grahame-Smith gets credit as the author, however I see your zombie-loving fingerprints all over it.

My favorite book of all time, Pride and Prejudice, has been plagiarized, then expanded by many writers over the years to include kids the Darcys had in later years, relatives they acquired, and livings bestowed upon subsequent generations. And now we have zombies roaming the idyllic English countryside with Elizabeth Bennet slaying them with as much moxie as she used to get her Mr. Darcy. While it might seem kind of exciting for some readers to enjoy the action as zombies maneuver English life and customs, I recoil at the horror of anyone messing with my delightful characters.

Supposedly, the book is about 85 percent Pride and Prejudice with 15 percent reworked to bring in the zombies. An example of the prose:

"He lumbered toward Elizabeth at an impressive pace, and when he was but an arm's length from her, she plunged the dagger into his chest and pulled it skyward."

Not my Elizabeth! She would be picking flowers, tying ribbons to broad-brimmed hats or trying to defend her outspoken family against idle chatter in the village. Not a zombie hunter is she. Rather, she would turn to Mr. Darcy, her knight on a white horse, to take care of the drooling, limb-shedding zombies. I have no doubt he would make quick work of them and off he would go to scoop up Elizabeth in his arms. If anyone is going to pair zombies with my Pride and Prejudice, at least get the story right.