Sweetest Thing

Over at Salon, Christine Smallwood reviews Rich Cohen’s Sweet and Low, a history of his family, and their invention: the sugar substitute.

The book is an absolute pleasure: expansive, fascinating, funny and full of historical tidbits to be read aloud to anyone around. It takes readers from the diner where his grandpa Ben worked to the factory where Sweet ‘n Low was packaged; from regulatory agencies and labs to the tony Long Island neighborhoods where embezzling higher-ups in the company had built themselves $2 million mansions; from his grandmother Betty’s funeral to the bedroom that his crazy Aunt Gladys never left.

More here.