Abu-Jaber On Tour

Over at Beatrice, Diana Abu-Jaber recaps her recent book tour for the promotion of her food memoir, The Language of Baklava. (Part 2 of the recap is here.)

April 24th: I’m in Los Angeles and about to go to the LA Times Festival of Books, but first I must take an opportunity to squawk about how I’m always getting ripped on by the Arab critics. Today, the Washington Post ran a review of The Language of Baklava. So that’s great! But darn it all, they gave it to an apparently Arab reviewer who openly admits that she didn’t like my second novel, Crescent. (So why did she agree to review my new book?) Thus ensues the usual disparaging review in which I’m generally accused of inauthenticity. Depressing on too many levels to ennumerate. Ugh. I hope the Angelenos are nice to me today!

The review in question, by food writer Anissa Helou is available here, and while I can’t comment on the recipes (I can’t cook to save my life), it does seem that Helou is so focused on minute details that she’s missing the larger point of the memoir, which is really about the stories that are told around the meals.