Tag: land of milk and honey

Land of Milk and Honey is a novel about a chef who takes a job at a mountain colony, where a man and his daughter are attempting to reshape the world. Food is disappearing as smog has spread across the world, when the narrator, a chef trapped in England hoping for a way back to California one day, takes a job as the chef at a mountain colony run by a man bringing back the world’s creatures and plants for decadent pleasure. Her new employer has a daughter, a determined woman who believes in his mission, and as the narrator is drawn into a world of gastronomical delights, violence, and pleasure, she starts to understand what she desires.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this book, which ended up being much more description-based and sensuous than the dystopian-esque blurb suggested. It sets up a world in which the pleasure of food has been lost, and then brings it back for the narrator, whilst also exploring how the rich envisage reshaping the world and what is classed as desirable. There’s also a love story, one with strange undertones and direction, deeply tied in with the food and the situation. The narrative goes fairly slowly and then the ending races through a conclusion, but that does feel like it matches the pacing of what happens, and the trajectories of desire in the book.

Turning a story of eco-crisis and the rich into a tale of longing and desire is impressive, stopping the book from being either moralistic or plain satire (it does have hints of something like The Menu in the ridiculousness of the food, but it goes far beyond that). Maybe the ending is a bit rushed and neat, but this is a book that really revels in human experiences and explores what really makes food matter.