"Kafka's Soup"

"Kafka's Soup: A Complete History of World Literature in 14 Recipes" (Harcourt, 2005), written and illustrated by Mark Crick, is a lovely little souffle of a book for those of us who love both literature and food. Each recipe is written in the style of a different author. The recipes include "Tarragon Eggs a la Jane Austen"; "Tiramisu a la Marcel Proust"; "Clafoutis Grandmere a la Virginia Woolf"; and "Onion Tart a la Geoffrey Chaucer." Each "recipe" is really a miniature (about three pages long) story. Let me quote from the Virginia Woolf recipe: "She placed the cherries in a buttered dish and looked out of the window...the cherries...would not be pitted, red polka dots on white, so bright and jolly, their little core of hardness invisible...Gently she melted the butter, transparent and smooth, oleaginous and clear, clarified and golden...Should she have made something traditionally English? (Involuntarily, piles of cake rose before her eyes.)...With great serenity she added an egg...whose yellow sphere, falling into the domed bowl, broke and poured, like Vesuvius erupting into the mixture, like the sun setting into a butter sea." This is a small, airy, light, whimsical and witty book, and I promise that you will smile when you read it.