The author writes well, so I'm going to put it down to bad advice from an editor not helping the author write a really cracking book. I suppose people feel like that about some of my 'reviews' where I write about my life or some rant or other and not the book but Goodreads is a social site not one of professional reviewers paid to stick to the point and try and keep to it's good points.Ģ.5 stars, but rounded up because I understand all about not sticking to the point. I bought the book because I wanted to read about difficult fruit and I was disappointed. The book read like two books in one the personal one, stories of her family and friends and herself (mostly) and one about fruit. Oh that she were! Oh that she were an open arse, and thou a poperin pear". And wish his mistress was that kind of fruit, As maides call medlars when they laugh alone.
When Romeo is pining for Juliet, his friend Mercutio says, "Now will he sit under a medlar tree. They had a funny name (you'll need to look at the pic link to get it) in Shakespeare's time 'open-arse' because it looks "like the pucker of an anus". The only really good bit was talking about medlars which were a great deal more popular in Tudor times than today. Then there is a bit more about the fruit, some history, maybe a quote from Shakespeare or someone, then a couple of recipes some of which are for hand lotion or bath oil. Some of which is less than enthralling - doing the accounts in a nursing home for old people, others of which I just skimmed over so I wouldn't know. The chapter structure which isn't always adhered to is to introduce a fruit, write pages and pages about her personal life. And some I find 'difficult' to understand why they are "difficult fruits" - cherries, gooseberries, kiwis, pomegranates and zucchini.
'Faceclocks' are dandelions, I've never heard them called 'faceclocks', have you? Neither wheat nor sugarcane are fruits. Not that all of the fruits are fruits, or if they are, they aren't ones anyone would identify as such. It strains my interest even further than credibility when I thought I was going to read about "difficult" fruits.
It strains my credibility when an author writes, "of a crystal realigning cells like a magnet through iron filings" and spends the chapter on X, xylitol (which is a sugar alcohol derived from birch bark and certain fibrous plant matter, including fruits) talking about crystals (to keep in her bra) and relationships and what not.
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