Crane Brothers Christmas Book Reviews: Volume 1
Reviews by Chloe Blades for Crane Brothers
FICTION
Service by John Tottenham (Profile Books, $38)
Originally published by the iconic Semiotext(e), the publisher of Chris Kraus, William S. Burroughs, Constance Debré, and Kathy Acker, amongst others, is a novel that the Washington Post critiqued as “hilarious, refreshingly mean-spirited and often brilliant”. British-born, LA-based artist and poet John Tottenham, is a bookseller at LA’s Stories Books, giving him a solid starting point for his debut novel that follows a middle-aged man working in a bookshop “as a form of penance: a cruelly fitting form of punishment for not having done my own work - to be consigned to the role of minor cog in the relentless turnover of a commodity that I could dispatch a superior product of if I ever got around to it”. It’s like Black Books, except if Bernard Black was running a successful bookshop in LA and used words like “comeliness” and “effortfully” and had the prowess of a poet, and the failure of an unpublished writer, to call himself a “humble aspiring prose stylist.” Tottenham takes on the modern scourges of gentrification, male vanity, jealousy and the worth of literature in a digital age with curmudgeonous humour and mean-spiritedness and it’s exceptional and endearing and just the work of fiction I’ve been waiting for to get me out of my fiction reading slump.
The Four Spent the Day Together by Chris Kraus (Scribe Publications, $40)
18 years after the publication of I Love Dick, the semi-fictional epistolary memoir about Kraus’ erotic obsession with a rogue academic named Dick, Chris Kraus returns with The Four Spent the Day Together. Catt Greene and her husband Paul move between LA and the art world that Catt is both revered and despised in, and the house they bought in the Iron Range of northern Minnesota to escape the city. There they witness the urban poverty of America not only through Paul’s addiction therapist jobs but the “meth community” they’re living within, and slowly we see their working-class and blue-collared roots merge and their marriage crumble under the weight of Paul’s own addiction. Catt finds escape from the tumult of her world by investigating the murder of a teenager at the hands of three friends that happened in a nearby house. This work of auto-fiction is pure genius, closely inspecting the tragic state of American politics and the vast wealth divide, the paralysing interconnectedness following the rise of social media, and the complex social and cultural factors at play behind the incarceration of young adults. Chris Kraus is, in my eyes, the epitome of literary perfection.
DELICIOUS KAI
Opa! By Helena and Vikki Moursellas (Smith Street Books, $65)
Greek sister-duo and chefs behind 2023’s Peináo: A Greek Feast For All, Helena and Vikki Moursellas, return with the most perfect cookbook to grace the genre this year. Opa is a word that can be used in myriad contexts, from joy and excitement to celebration and surprise. Their scrumptious recipes span traditional favourites like lamb kleftiko and roasted tomatoes to the more boozy sorts like the crowd-pleasing ouzo and olive sours. They amount to everything opa stands for - a joyful, celebratory Greek-inspired spread - made all the more perfect by artist Gemma Leslie’s chalky and rugged illustrations, and the photographs that have a Slim Aarons haze to them. I’d like to hold up this cookbook from a table top in a taverna on the island where my soul lives (Skiathos) shouting “opa!” while sipping on ouzo because it’s so spectacularly gorgeous. You’ll have your guests smashing plates and dancing the sirtaki before the night’s over.
Oikos: An Ode to Family and Friends by Theo Papouis (Oikos, $85)
Winner of the 1010 Printing Award for Best Cookbook at this year's PANZ Book Design Awards, Oikos is so exclusive you can just about find it in one or two Wellington bookshops. In Ancient Greek, the name Oikos relates to three distinct concepts - the family, the house and the home. This book, like the restaurant, captures the flavours of all three. With its neon blue title embedded against the green clothbound background, these contrasting colours set you up for the joy that continues inside. The story of chef Theo Papouis’ heritage opens the book and is bookmarked by postcards of his family. He didn’t spare anything when it came to the detail and what he’s created is an heirloom that has tastefully immortalised his and his family’s recipes. From the custom Greek alphabet, the postcard size family-photos slotted in the pages, and the exquisite photographs that transcend you straight to the Aegean, this one strikes a perfect balance of functionality and beauty so stunning I’m actually afraid to use it…
