When a beloved poet dies, it's sad for his friends not to be able to meet him again for drinks. A rich part of our life is missing and will for as long as we live. But when the poet was also a writer of novels and novellas and nonfiction essays, we have those treasures forever, as well as his books of poetry, and when his publisher finds enough previously uncollected essays to gather into a posthumous volume, it's like being served, unexpectedly, a second dessert -- or a whole 'nother meal.
Because A Really Big Lunch serves up much more than dessert. All the essays in this collection treat of food but never predictably and never uniformly. This is food as it was in the life of Jim Harrison. Additionally surprising and delightful are photographs throughout the pages of Jim with friends, family, and dogs. This is the Jim Harrison I knew. This book is another gift to the world.
A Really Big Lunch: The Roving Gourmand on Food and Life
by Jim Harrison, with an introduction by Mario Batali
Hardcover, illustrated, 275pp, $26
