Below you will find my book review, and rating of this novel.
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| The Hundred-Foot Journey By Richard Morais (Non-Fiction) |
This was the first book I’ve read in this category, and it’s also the first book I’ve read based so heavily upon food. Richard Morais’s The Hundred-Foot Journey is a story greatly centralized around the burgeoning growth of Hassan Haji - a budding young chef in his family’s clan. Morais focuses heavily for the first half of the novel upon the Haji family’s relationship with that of Madame Mallory a Michelin star chef 100 feet across from their newly established Indian restaurant.
The three most prominent characters in this whole novel are Hassan, Abbas, and Madame Mallory. Hassan is by far the most centric character in The Hundred-Foot Journey as this book is largely taken from his first-person narrative, and we get to experience his journey as a young teen to an older man in the end. Abbas is the true old-fashioned patriarch, and he truly plays the part through every bit of his interactions. By far the one character that really led me to believe that hey were real was Madame Mallory. The insight that Morais gives us into Madame Mallory’s life is insightful, and totally relatable for those of us that have lost out time and again on something we hold dear. It also highlights the nature of our own personal beasts that we tend to harbor and grow like a cancer when we are not at peace with our own selves.
Madame Mallory is also relatable in regards to how she is willing to admit wrongs done, and the capability of making amends in her own way. It is through her development as a character that we see Hassan develop from a fledgling chef in his own family’s restaurant to Madame Mallory’s student of traditional French cuisine. As Hassan grows more with his skill as a chef, it becomes more prominent that he has now outgrown the teachings of Madame Mallory and a new direction for him becomes clear. This change from Lumiere to Paris however is where I found The Hundred-Foot Journey to begin its lapse from engaging, to tepid.
The spice of The Hundred-Foot Journey was with characters back in Lumiere, from Madame Mallory, Abbas, and the rest of the Haji clan. Unfortunately Morais took Hassan and stopped developing him personally as a character - instead focusing on his development as a chef. Morais treated Hassan more like a kitchen instrument that cooks the food, as opposed to a character in his own right. Or that at least is how I felt. To be honest I felt so disappointed, like I had been in a spicy relationship, only to have it’s flavor cooked out as opposed to honed.
The other thing that really killed this novel for me was Morais poor execution of narrative. The Hundred-Foot Journey starts out as a first-person narrative, but then becomes a third-person narrative when needed. Sadly the third-person narrative of Madame Mallory is truly the only real character development he was able to execute through the novel. To me it was a shame because I’ve read novels before based on first-person narrative in which the character is amazingly developed, as well as any other characters they interact with. I could just be biased, but character development for me is the number one thing that I find important in a novel.
At most an author could have poor grammar, some crappy clichés, and dead sections but as long as the character is engaging it covers up such basic errors. Instead Hassan’s lack of character only accentuates Morais’s constant run-on sentences, and poorly chosen sexual innuendos.
In the end, I still can’t shut out how much I liked the first half of this novel. It was engaging, colorful, and vibrant. In the end though a strong start doesn’t finish out a novel, it’s really every aspect that makes or breaks you. Richard Morais is a talented writer I’m certain, but for me this novel really didn’t do it for me. If you want a novel that is entertaining at parts, an easy read for those boring days, and something that makes you want to cook - then pick up a copy of The Hundred-Foot Journey. To me it’s been shelved in my “Not to Read Again” list...
My rating: 2.5 out of 5 Stars.
If any of you have read this book, I'd love your thoughts. Do you feel that I'm way off the mark in my review? Or did I touch upon some of the things that you may have found lacking as well?
I'd love anyone's thoughts and feelings on this book, as I love to see what other people caught that I didn't.
If any of you haven't read the book, and don't think you will then you can get some aspect of it in the movie's rendition of The Hundred-Foot Journey.
After I finished this novel, Ricky and I went to see the movie (come on it's Steven Spielberg!) Like most movie adaptations of books - it was different, but highly enjoyable all the same.
I'll leave you all with a trailer just in case! (Sometimes it's never bad to skip a book and just go to the movies.)
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