Bruce Wydick

I received an ARC of The Taste of Many Mountains through NetGalley. I was intrigued when I came across it because I read a lot of histories that focus on a specific commodity, such as diamonds or chocolate or aspirin, and I was interested to see how this type of book would play out in novel form. The format had potential: Telling the story of the coffee industry as it becomes revealed to a team of graduate students immersed in a research project. At the same time, the reader would theoretically become emotionally involved in the lives and emotions of the characters.

Unfortunately, though, both elements fell flat. While the book does contain many interesting details and revelations about the coffee industry, free trade, and fair trade, it loses something due to the way in which the information is relayed mostly through (somewhat forced) conversation among the students. Likewise, the character development of the students loses something due to the way in which so much focus is given to the details of their research. It became difficult to engage with either the characters or the historical/economical/industrial content, as the two aspects of the novel were competing with rather than complementing each other.

I would have loved to read more about the lives and motivations of each of the four graduate students. Even more, I would have loved to read more about the history and nuances of the coffee industry. Either of these could have been successful in their own right, but integrated into a single tale were somewhat less so.… (mehr)