Whether you're the host or the guest, whether the table is set for two or twenty, feasts are memorable occasions. They may mark holidays, special events, or simply the celebration of family and friends. This program features three works that focus on feasts. Sarah Webster Goodwin talks about Isak Dinesen's short story "Babette's Feast"; Kari Salkjelsvik explores Laura Esquivel's novel _Like Water for Chocolate_; and Gail Kern Paster talks about Ben Jonson's poem "Inviting a Friend to Supper."
Well-suited to Thanksgiving.
Fifteen- and thirty-second promos available.
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Piece Description
Whether you're the host or the guest, whether the table is set for two or twenty, feasts are memorable occasions. They may mark holidays, special events, or simply the celebration of family and friends. This program features three works that focus on feasts. Sarah Webster Goodwin talks about Isak Dinesen's short story "Babette's Feast"; Kari Salkjelsvik explores Laura Esquivel's novel _Like Water for Chocolate_; and Gail Kern Paster talks about Ben Jonson's poem "Inviting a Friend to Supper." Well-suited to Thanksgiving. Fifteen- and thirty-second promos available.
2 Comments
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Review of What's the Word? Literary FeastsFor those who haven't seen the movies, "Like Water For Chocolate" and "Babette's Feast," this half-hour piece might be a satisfying meal discusing the books from which these books came. But for those who have, there might be a sense that there isn't much new material in this documentary. Some people might have the opposite reaction and love the discussion of the familiar scenes from these sumptuous films inspired by sumptuous books. In general, this series would be more appealing for the over 50 crowd. It's an old-style production - very straight forward and literary. This series could very easily follow EuroQuest or Radio Netherlands half-hour docs. |
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Originally fed on May 13, 2004
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Posted on November 29, 2004 at 07:27 AM | Permalink
Review of What's the Word? Literary Feasts
So it's hard to tell which might be better, the book or the radio.
The three vignettes of "Literary Feasts" deliciously gloss the arcs of the story, novel, and poem ("Babette's Feast", Like Water for Chocolate, and "Inviting a Friend to Supper") with narratives the listener can apprehend, even during meal prep. There's just enough underpinning of sound, not distracting like a movie soundtrack, but entwined with the words, an illuminated manuscript.
The meat of the feast is Kari Salkjelsvik, a Norwegian who specializes in 19th Century Mexican literature. She speaks a perfect mole, hot and sweet, as she explicates the tradition of oral-to-written evolution of story, the fortune cookie of Laura Esquivel's novel. Sarah Webster Goodwin on Isak Dinesen and Gail Kern Paster on Ben Jonson rise up to make solid wholegrain slices to the sandwich.
I love the fun form-content tricks throughout, as where Paster underlines the verses where Jonson jokes that some pastry or cheeses at his supper might come wrapped in paper with his poems upon it.
"Literary Feasts" is perfect following an early-ending weekend All Things Considered program, when listeners' minds are more tuned to the artistic than journalistic, hungry not for mere calories, but culture.