10/22/2024
THE UPSTAIRS DELICATESSAN is out in paperback today from ! Dwight Garner gathers a literary chorus to capture the joys of reading and eating in this comic, personal classic.
“For those of us who live to read and eat, this book is a feast.”
—Jennifer Reese, The New York Times
“The Upstairs Delicatessen, [Garner’s] delightful, quote-stuffed memoir, tracks the evolution of his reading habits (‘Autobiography, for me, quickly edges into bibliography’) and pairs that appetite with another, for food . . . what makes it as satisfying as that midnight cheeseburger, is the same formula that keeps Garner’s reviews fresh and entertaining week after week: his eagerness to amuse and the rolling canter of his prose–embellished, always, by his notorious addiction to metaphor.”
—Adam Begley, Times Literary Supplement
“Memoir, thoughts about food, and literary criticism are stacked, in The Upstairs Delicatessen, like the bright layers of a Venetian cookie . . . One nice thing about Garner’s book is that he doesn’t just go for the classics. Younger or more recently published writers like Bryan Washington, Viet Thanh Nguyen, and Anthony Veasna So all have a place at his table.”
—Alexandra Schwartz, The New Yorker
“Garner, whose book reviews are a highlight of the Times culture pages, serves up a commonplace book composed of literary quotations, advice for living, recipes, and a heaping side order of memoir. . . . Garner’s mind—his ‘upstairs delicatessen’—is generous, excellent company.”
—The New Yorker
