Book Review: Marie Antoinette: The Journey by Antonia Fraser

Studying French language most of my school career instilled in me a natural interest in Marie Antoinette. I heard praise of this book years ago, so much so that I bought it, and it's been sitting on my shelf ever since. This was long before the Sophia Coppola film came out, though I did enjoy seeing that at the time, and the movie certainly increased my interest in her life. I finally got around to actually reading the book, and I'm glad for the new outlook it gave me.

Antoine was youngest daughter of Maria Theresa, the great Holy Roman Empress. At birth, no one thought much of her prospects since she had so many older siblings, but as her sisters died off unexpectedly she seemed destined for a great place. That place turned out to be the wife of Louis XVI. The book chronicles her daily goings on at Versailles and before as gathered through court records, personal correspondence, and diaries. She married into the French court at 15, and became a figure of fashion for the time. Sadly her place in the public view also left her susceptible to public derision. The "Let them eat cake" line she is constantly quoted with in our modern pop culture actually was never said by her, but the papers printed it and people of the time took it as gospel. Through other altercations with the press falsely representing her, Marie Antoinette was set up to be the most vilified member of the French court during the revolution. We all know what eventually happened, but the events that got her there are much more varied than upon first glance or the small blip we are taught in American history classes.

I really enjoyed reading this book. This account truly humanizes the real woman in Marie Antoinette. This book has one main purpose in my eyes - to restore the unfortunate public image that she could not help at the time. The book specifically mentions key points that made the French people want her head on a pike like The Diamond Necklace Affair and her alleged romances with other women of the court as well as men. It was truly the anti-royalist press that killed her. Her death was the sad result of being born and bred to live a certain life at a time when the common people had had enough. Marie Antoinette was extravagant to be sure, but she was also kind and charitable, and her attitude around her death shows a great strength of character no matter who you are. I feel very bad for what happened to her, but at the same time it seems there could really be no other option. If you are at all interested in French history or in Marie Antoinette herself, I absolutely recommend you give this book a try. I give this book 4 out of 5 stars.

Book Review: Dr. Mütter's Marvels by Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz

Dr. Mütter's Marvels is a biography of a brilliant Ante Bellum period surgeon, Dr. Thomas Dent Mütter. The story begins with his early days when he is adopted by a prominent family as a child, then follows his education and eventual study of medicine in Paris (the leading city of the field at the time). Dr. Mütter particularly loved the budding field of plastic surgery which was used at the time to better the lives of the traumatically disfigured. Mütter went on to be the youngest educator at a new medical college and influenced the fields of plastic surgery and anesthetization in ways that are still practiced today - we still perform a surgery called "The Mütter Flap". Mütter died at just 48 years old, but managed to leave his mark on the medical field in many lasting ways, and changed the lives of many Americans for the better in ways only he was capable of at the time.

I had no idea what to expect when I picked up this book. The concept sounded interesting, but as I am not in the medical field myself I had never even heard of this man. The book brought many hardships of the mid-1800s to my attention that I had never pondered before - such as how common it was for women's large dresses and petticoats to catch fire, turning their undergarments into literal ovens with chimneys at their necks, trapping the women inside of layer upon layer of ridiculous "fashion" that usually killed them or left them monstrously disfigured. Mütter was the first to successfully transfer skin from a healthy area on the patient to fill in the burned and melted areas that caused them pain or to be ostracized by society at large. Mütter also became one of the early proponents of using ether to subdue patients and alleviate pain during surgery - before this time people would literally have to lay still and scream as they were cut into with nothing more than a swig of alcohol every so often to dull the pain. These are sufferings that I can hardly imagine myself in our own time, causing me to have enormous gratitude for the advancements of our day, imperfect as they are they are still much better than things used to be. Any book that brings new realizations out in the reader and puts them in another's place gets a thumbs up from me. I give this book 4 out of 5 stars.

Book Review: Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain

Confession: I first read more than 2/3rds of Kitchen Confidential about 2 years ago when I was giving the book away for World Book Night 2013. I didn't finish in time, and then other books caught my interest and I never managed to finish this one in spite of how much I enjoyed it. I finally thought to just get the audio book in September and re-read/finish, and I did not regret this decision.

Kitchen Confidential is Anthony Bourdain's life story of his experience in the restaurant business. The book was first released in 2000, and served as quite the exposé for the raunchy lives of the employees of big name operations in the 1980s and 90s. Bourdain talks about how he came to embark on his career (mostly just to prove he could to a hot shot cook who wouldn't hire him as a college student), what he learned from the numerous places he worked at (what spelled disaster and what succeeded for the owners and management), all mixed with tips and advice about how to be a better cook at home and why you should never enter this seedy industry yourself. He talks quite a lot about his problems with drugs and how this industry enabled him to do pretty much whatever he wanted. Eventually he decided that he was not going to be a statistic and managed to get his problems in check as he climbed the ladder to become a successful head chef in a hot restaurant of the time - no easy feat.

I love how open and raw this book presented Bourdain's life and opinions. I'm not a big fan of him personally, but I can't help but appreciate his insight into the restaurant industry. The book is filled with bad language (I feel like I must warn friends of more sensitive tastes), but it feels so natural and truthful in his stories because of the scene in which they occur. I particularly love the section where he describes all the kitchen lingo in detail and then recounts a plausible conversation that would happen in one of his kitchens. It was hilarious to hear him read it himself. While this book caused a lot of stir in the world at the time of its release, all these goings on are much more widely known now so it didn't feel shocking (though I probably learned about all the back room dealings vicariously through this book in some way or another down the line). Even if you don't love Anthony Bourdain, this book is a real life look into what it takes to climb in this strange business, and I enjoyed finally getting to finish it :) I give this book 4 out of 5 stars.