The Cookbook Collector, by Allegra Goodman

I know that I read and liked at least two of Allegra Goodman's previous novels, Intuition and Paradise Park. If I haven't read her first novel, Kaaterskill Falls, the reason is, inevitably, that I own it. With print books--not so with e-books so much, so far--I have the tendency to relax once I have bought them and not actually read them--whereas when I borrow books from the public library I tend to actually read them. I guess that's because the due date becomes a kind of deadline. But I digress from my point, which is that, as much as I may have liked her previous works, they did not prepare me for how much I would love love love her latest novel, The Cookbook Collector. Since I read it, I learned from a friend that it is on the list of independent booksellers' top 10 of 2010. I'd better check out the rest of that list.

It's true that the book's two subplots center on things of such interest to me and like-minded folk (who in this context I would characterize as fiction-, computer-, and food-loving librarians, I guess), that it had a very strong chance of winning me over even before I had read beyond the flap. But it's nearly 400 pages long, and after I got into it I could hardly put it down, Goldman accomplished much more than merely assembling components that would draw in a certain reader demographic. 

The story, which centers on two sisters, is infused with a special poignancy because of the skillful way Goodman conveys the way the childhood loss of their mother affected them, both as individual personalities and the way they relate to one another. The elder one, Emily, is the CEO of an Internet startup goes public during the course of the novel, promising truly inconceivable wealth for her and her colleagues, even while causing discomfort in her romantic life because her fiance's similar company lags behind hers in the timing of its IPO and its wealth. Where Emily is practical, her younger sister Jess has her head in the clouds, both literally as a vegan member of a Save the Trees coop, and figuratively, as a graduate student of philosophy. Jess's life is changed by her part-time job in a used bookstore, which is where the cookbook collection comes in. Enough said.

Warning: the number of characters in this book, each of whom Goodman provides with a vivid physical and psychological characterization, is positively Dickensian, and at first it can be a little overwhelming as she switches between plots and people. But once the plot and the principal characters take hold of you, the book is hard to put down and, when you are finished, forget. She also grounds her story very solidly and satisfactorily into its places--Berkeley and Cambridge, Mass.--and its time, 1999-2002, and the cookbook collection itself is thoroughly and delightfully portrayed. I'll have to find my copy of Kaaterskill Falls and dig into it, finally.