52 Loaves: One Man’s Relentless Pursuit of Truth, Meaning, and a Perfect Crust
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Product Description
William Alexander is determined to bake the perfect loaf of bread. He tasted it long ago, in a restaurant, and has been trying to reproduce it ever since. Lacking success. But now he’s going to try again—every week for one year—until he gets it right. He will bake his peasant loaf from scratch. And because Alexander is nothing if not thorough, he really means from scratch: growing, harvesting, winnowing, threshing, and milling his own wheat.
Alexander’s regularly hilarious quest takes our (anti)hero through treacherous back alleys of Morocco, where he bakes his loaf in an very ancient communal oven; to Paris, where he enrolls in the cours de boulangerie at the famed École Ritz Escoffier; to a monastery in Normandy, where (his lack of French and faith notwithstanding) he becomes bread baker to the monks; and finally to his own backyard, where he builds a lopsided brick oven and learns that perfection is just a state of mind. Alexander also takes us along on entertaining visits to yeast factories and flour mills, seeks advice from master bread bakers, captures wild yeast to make his own levain, and enters the baking contest at the New York State Honest.
An original take on the six-thousand-year-ancient staple of life, 52 Loaves explores the scenery of obsession, the meditative quality of ritual, the futility of trying to re-make something perfect, our deep tie to the planet, and the mysterious instinct that makes every single person on the planet, regardless of culture or society, respond to the aroma of baking bread.
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If you loved watching the movie “My Huge Stout Greek Wedding”, then you are going to relish reading “52 Loaves”. Just as the audience did not have to be Greek to laugh at the hilarious movie scenes and to empathize with the protagonist’s experiences, readers do not have to bake bread, to be fully sated with this wonderful book.
For me, the most satisfying book is one that balances character, plot, setting, and theme. In “52 Loaves”, all four strands are natural fiber in a tapestry of well-written, thoughtful words.
The main “character” is the leader, William Alexander. If you can recall a time in your life when either a meal or food tantalized you with its sublime taste, smell and texture, you can know the leader’s persistent attempts to recreate a memorable experience with a loaf of bread. Agreed bread’s many dynamic variables (flour, yeast, time and temperature), replicating a loaf of bread lacking a recipe, is intricately intricate. As the tale enfolds, we laugh heartily as the leader encounters one mishap after another in search for this elusive recipe, while admiring his doggedness. The single-all ears character who we meet at the beginning of the book becomes introspective and philosophical at the end.
The plot holds the reader’s interest as it revolves around the leader’s activities, his tribulations paired with triumphs, his obstacles followed by revelations. Along with the leader, we learn from and delight in meeting, among others, the miller, the bakers, the hippie, the scientist, the storeowner, and the monk. While we know intuitively that the leader will eventually bake a “perfect” loaf, we read on to share in this victory. Rich in setting, the book travels from one location to the next – a heap of fascinating places that culminate in a week’s stay at a French monastery. The descriptions are precise in detail, informative in context, and lyrical in tone – a pleasing juxtaposition. Finally, like the leader who learned that the perfect bread is the penultimate one, at the conclusion of the book, the reader will reflect about its many meanings long after the last page is read.
“52 Loaves” is quintessential tale-telling. Whether you have never baked a loaf of bread, want to bake a loaf of bread, or have veteran the joys of baking your own or eating the “perfect” loaf, this is the book to read.
Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5