Back to Reviews By Title - E

Eating with the Angels, Sarah-Kate Lynch
Black Swan
Reviewed by Jan Treliving-Brown (Courtesy of Taranaki Daily News)

Eating with the Angels is not as good as By Bread Alone. The smell of the food, the mouth-watering flavours – well, they're not there. And this is hardly surprising, as Connie Farrell, famous restaurant critic, has suffered an accident and endured a very long coma, only to awaken sans tastebuds. How can a restaurant reviewer write critically when she has no sense of taste?

Sarah-Kate Lynch has done well in the humour department but this new novel lacks in the area of believability. Am I jealous, or are there too many men lusting after poor, head-injured Connie? Even worse, Connie's husband Tom has gone off and married someone else, believing Connie to be permanently comatose. Connie's new fiance, Ty, is a complete prat, a silly, pretentious wearer of impeccable cream linen.

Predictably, brain surgeon Marco is a dream, a perfect male specimen: "The man appealed to me on levels that only my hormones can explain." However, it's Marco's father, Luca, who understands Connie's predicament, helping her to recover. Add in Connie's disastrous mother/daughter relationship and you have an accurate picture of one hundred percent dysfunction.

The book would be depressing if not for the funny bits. I enjoyed the Sarah-Kate Lynch Eating Out Guide at the end: "It seemed silly for me to have done all the vital research and kept it to myself, so I've included my picks of the best places to eat in two of my favourite cities, Venice and New York."