The author of the tantalizing HOUSE OF SPIRITS returns with a unique, sense-stirring
memoir. Through a rich and researched text interspersed with art and recipes, Isabel
Allende explores the aphrodisiacs that have propelled the ages from the kitchen to the
bedroom. In APHRODITE, her writing is honest, literary and as passionate as the love
goddess invoked in the title.
Allende writes in the introduction: "Since time immemorial, in order to stimulate
amorous desire and fertility, humanity has called upon substances, tricks, magic acts, and
games that serious and virtuous people hasten to classify as perversions. Fertility will
not interest us here --- everyone else, you will have noticed, already has too many
children --- we're going to concentrate on pleasure."
APHRODITE is indeed a diverse delight. Allende bolsters her own life vignettes with
ingredients including an "Ode to Conger Chowder," the recipe for the classic coq
au vin, a letter from Anais Nin to an anonymous man on the essence of eroticism, the
symbolism of the forbidden fruits, discussion of the worded romance of Cyrano de Bergerac,
and innumerable other pleasures.
The final product is hard to classify. Beyond a how-to manual or cookbook and wider in
geographic and historic scope than a mere memoir, Allende's book promises new temptations
on each page.
--- Reviewed by Krista Madsen
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