The Raw and the Cooked

Book excerpt: A cornucopia of culinary essays from “the Henry Miller of food writing. His passion is infectious” (Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg, The Wall Street Journal). Jim Harrison was one of this country’s most beloved writers, a muscular, brilliantly economic stylist with a salty wisdom. For more than twenty years, he also wrote some of the best essays on food around, now collected in a volume that caused the Santa Fe New Mexican to exclaim: “To read this book is to come away convinced that Harrison is a flat-out genius—one who devours life with intensity, living it roughly and full-scale, then distills his experiences into passionate, opinionated prose. Food, in this context, is more than food: It is a metaphor for life.” From Harrison’s legendary Smart and Esquire columns, to current works including a correspondence with French gourmet Gerard Oberle, fabulous pieces on food in France and America for Men’s Journal, and a paean to the humble meatball, The Raw and the Cooked is a nine-course meal that will satisfy every appetite. “[A] culinary combo plate of Hunter S. Thompson, Ernest Hemingway, Julian Schnabel, and Sam Peckinpah.” —Jane and Michael Stern, The New York Times Book Review