“He readed in his front chest pocket, fished out a Marlboro, and lit it. ‘So what the hell we been serving then?'” – Anthony Bourdain, ‘Bone In The Throat’
Thanksgiving’s actually the one holiday where the only cooking I’m on the hook for is pies. I’m not even a baker! I make a bourbon pecan pie and pumpkin pie and they both rip. Mal makes an incredible turkey, that buttermilk brine. Anyway, I hope you and yourn got together and ate some good food, and I hope you’re reading something to brush up on Indigenous history, culture, or literature.
What I’ve Been Reading This Week:
Not something to brush up on Indigenous history, culture, or literature—that was all back in January/March/September/October/etc. No, it’s the final Friday of Noirvember, and I saved a good one. A book that sat on my shelf, tempting me, saying just read me, you’ll have so much fun. Sure enough, I did! Then I read another, because I had a little extra time! I’m talking, of course, about Bone In The Throat by Anthony Bourdain and Anthony Bourdain’s Hungry Ghosts by Anthony Bourdain and Joel Rose (with art from Alberto Ponticelli, Vanesa Del Rey. Leonardo Manco, Mateus Santolouco, Sebastian Cabrol, Paul Pope, Irene Koh, and Francesco Francavilla; color by José Vaillarrubia and letters by Sal Cipriano).
Anthony Bourdain’s Hungry Ghosts by Anthony Bourdain and Joel Rose: the last book before Tony took his own life, co-written with novelist Joel Rose and artists listed above, this book is very fun. It’s a graphic novel horror anthology. The setup is something you could imagine Tony pitching over osso busco in some dimly-lit restaurant: a Russian oligarch has thrown a lavish dinner party cooked by the most famous chefs in the world. Then, he makes the chefs play the Game of 100 Candles, an Edo Japan-era game where you light 100 candles, tell scary stories, and blow out a candle in front of the mirror to make sure you haven’t been possessed. What follows is some of the most marvelously gruesome monster stories you’ve ever read. The funny thing is, they’re designed (to me at least) to be told in between orders at a restaurant. Like they’re all very short and designed to make you say whoa dude that’s the craziest thing I ever heard. That’s not a knock. This book’s fun as hell.
Bone In The Throat by Anthony Bourdain: remember that movie Miles Ahead, starring and co-written/directed by Don Cheadle? I never saw it, but really wanted to, especially after one reviewer called it something more akin to a movie that a drugged-out, paranoid Miles might like to see himself in, dodging criminals and lowlifes and surviving off the power of his trumpet. That’s basically this book, and Tony, and both the head chef and sous-chef at The Dreadnaught, a French and seafood place that’ll remind you of a few things from Kitchen Confidential. A lot will, I suspect, and that’s fine—this is a bit of pulp fiction written by some executive chef in New York. Kitchen Confidential, which is what started morphing Chef Tony into Anthony Bourdain, was written a few years later.
If you like 90s crime movies, you’ll like this book; if you’re a Bourdain fan, you’ll love it. The chef character is older, hooked-on-heroin Tony and the sous-chef character is young up-and-coming Tony. There are a few in-character slurs that shouldn’t be unfamiliar if you read 90s crime novels. None from the 30s crime novels, fortunately. When I described this book to Mal, she said “it sounds kinda bad,” and I suppose it is a bit “50 Shades of Grey for dads who relate to Nicholas Hoult’s character in The Menu.” Personally, I think it rules that Tony got to write a sleazy crime novel with long, loving chapters devoted to chef’s prep work and the story of how a guy fell in love with cooking being told to a detective over a long, luxurious lunch on the NYPD’s dime. Good writing is made of sensory language and food is my favorite sensories, or something. Not to mention—who doesn’t love a weird little guy in trouble? That’s what noir’s made of, and I bet James M. Cain would like this book.
LINKS!
Something to listen to while you browse? Maybe some queer Ingidenous punk? Yeah, that sounds right. Here’s Yamantaka // Sonic Titan’s video for their song “One.”
Quick plug up top: one of the better small presses out there, Malarkey Books, has a Kickstarter going right now! Malarkey is responsible for The Life Of The Party Is Harder To Find Until You’re The Last One Around, White People On Vacation, and a whole bunch of other books I’m setting aside some money to buy at AWP this year. Important for a small press: their books are beautiful, with good covers and sturdy paper. That’s reason enough to kick them some cash.
There’s a Chicago Reader dropbox right by my kid’s school, and he’s internalized “Dada needs a newspaper” on Thursdays really well. That’s a brag. My kid is so fuckin cool, you can’t even believe it. What I want to link to is the PEOPLE issue of Reader, specifically the Jamie Kalven interview done by Michael Miner (with photos by Kevin Serna). Anyway, defund the police.
From a while ago, but I recently came across it and laughed my ass off the whole time. Here’s John Paul Brammer on the six sentences he can’t forget.
In the spirit of the holiday, learn some Indigenous history today. I asked my kid what he was learning about Indigenous cultures in school and the first thing said asked me was why did Mama and I steal all this land (Mal: “don’t put this on Black people!”) He and I then had a talk about how sometimes problems are too big for any one person to do anything, but collective action is possible thanks to activists. I told him about the Land Back movement. Who knows how much he internalized? But I’m not gonna lie, you know? Anyway, here’s Tony Tekaroniake Evans at History.com on how the Iroquis Confederacy was formed. You know, the first democracy in America.
One of the more enraging stories you’ll ever read: Neil Steinberg at Chicago Sun-Times on how ComEd lured historian, TikTok star, and one of our best Chicagoans, Shermann Dilla Thomas, out of his union job, then laid him off. I don’t blame Dilla for wanting to get fewer hours and more time to make history videos, but man—major lesson in never leaving a union job and never trusting a CEO.
Wanna watch an Ancient Americas doc? Of course you do. How about this on the Calusa, the “fishermen kings of Florida?” Yeah, that’s the stuff.
What’re you still doing here? I know I link to Dead Pioneers a lot, but let’s do it again:
If you work in the service industry, may you clean up in tips this weekend. If a mob guy asks you to stay late at the restaurant because the porters are gonna be calling in sick and he and his mob buddies need a space to quietly talk with someone? Uh, try to get off the hook for that. Try not to get involved. If you have no choice? Well, that’s life in the service industry sometimes, good luck.
Sorry you got an email,
Chris