A sublime slip of an essay collection. Food, travel, crime fiction! ( )

Don't read (or listen to) this until after you complete the Marseilles Trilogy. If you have, then most of this will be very familiar. There is so much about Marseilles and its foods in the trilogy that a lot of what is here is a bid superfluous. However, in this short book there are also a few insights into the author's own life, his writing, and his character Fabio Montale that make it worth your time if you were as impressed with the Marseilles Trilogy as I was. ( )

These are beautiful shorts, tales of love, food and connections. His love for the city Marseille is written so beautifully I felt like I was there enjoying it with him. His love of food, had me drooling. Why wasn’t there any recipes? I wish travel guides were written so emotionally.
I’ve never read his work before but enjoyed his background stories on his noir writings.
This is not something I normally read, but I thoroughly enjoyed this little trip down memory lane with Jean-Claude Izzo ( )

Garlic, Mint & Sweet Basil from Jean-Claude Izzo is a delightful collection of essays that will make you feel like you're in Marseilles or some place along the Mediterranean coast again, enjoying the weather, the people, and of course the food.

I have to state the obvious since there seem to be a lot of people who don't read book descriptions then rate a book poorly based on that. This is not a cookbook. Nothing in any description I saw, whether on Netgalley or the publisher's site, would give that indication. Every description talks about the "collection of essays." You might want to temper your expectations from a reviewer whose reading comprehension can't figure out that a collection of essays is not a cookbook. Or a reviewer who doesn't read (or can't comprehend) a book description. I didn't think To Kill A Mockingbird was a hunting manual based on the title, I didn't think How to Make an American Quilt was a book about quilting, or at least not a book about, you know, making a quilt. I read the book descriptions before reading either of those and was not, even in elementary school in the case of TKAM, unable to understand what each book was. So just keep that in mind when deciding how much credence you want to put in a given reviewer's opinions.

So, this non-cookbook collection of essays is in some ways a bunch of love letters to Izzo's beloved Marseilles. The reader will start to feel the sun, smell the food, and understand what makes the area so special to Izzo. If you've ever been to Marseilles you will have an even greater appreciation for the city than you did before, or at least I do.

If you like lyrical memoir-ish essays that are as much about location as the person inhabiting that location, you will find a lot to enjoy here.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley. ( )

Un libro minuscolo non solo per gli amanti di Izzo, ma per chi ama Marsiglia, il Mediterraneo nelle sue esplosioni di azzurro, di sole e di odori. L'aglio, il basilico e la menta sono le note dominanti nella sinfonia di sapori provenzali e soprattutto marsigliesi. Ma nelle pagine ritroviamo elementi di mare e di terra con i ricci di mare, le ostriche e le vongole e il Puy Sainte Reparade, il buon vino di Provenza.
Non ingannatevi, questo non è un libro che ci parla di cucina o di gola. C'è Izzo prima di tutto, con il suo amore struggente per l'azzurro Mediterraneo e per una città meravigliosa, e allora difficile, come Marsiglia.
E a Marsiglia come in qualsiasi altro luogo, la conoscenza inizia dal mercato e dai suoi odori e colori, per "sentire la città" come dice l'autore. ( )