The Ingredients of Love

Details of the Book

No. of Pages    : 272 pages

ISBN               : ISBN-10‏: ‎ 1250006708; ISBN-13: ‎ 978-1250006707

Language         : English

 

From the book blurb

A charming restaurant A book and its mysterious author A little secret A romantic meeting Paris and all its magic . . . Cyrano de Bergerac meets Chocolat and Amélie in this intelligent, charming, and entertaining publishing sensation from Europe. While in the midst of a breakup-induced depression, Aurélie Bredin, a beautiful Parisian restaurateur, discovers an astonishing novel in a quaint bookshop on the Ile Saint-Louis. Inexplicably, her restaurant and Aurélie herself are featured in its pages. After reading the whole book in one night, she realizes it has saved her life―and she wishes more than anything to meet its author. Aurélie's attempts to contact the attractive but shy English author through his French publishers are blocked by the company's gruff chief editor, André, who only with great reluctance forwards Aurélie's enthusiastic letter. But Aurélie refuses to give up. One day, a response from the reclusive author actually lands in her mailbox, but the encounter that eventually takes place is completely different from what she had ever imagined. . . . Filled with books, recipes, and characters that leap off the page, The Ingredients of Love by Nicolas Barreau is a tribute to the City of Light.

 

What I think

I stumbled upon this book recently and the title made me want to pick it up immediately. There is Paris, love, food and what not. Also, the entertaining Hindi movie Bareily ki Barfi is said to be loosely inspired from this one.

 

Thus, I started reading. And what a bore! Blah!

 

Aurelie is going through a tough phase in life – her father has died way too soon and her cheating boyfriend has vanished leaving just a note. She has a close friend, Bernadette, who is quite critical yet practical. Still, we don’t empathize with Aurelie. Not when she thinks of her father (exactly 6 times or so in the painfully long book) or when she cries for her ex-boyfriend who abandoned her with just a note (They in love? I mean what it is again?). Basically, the book is a painfully elaborate description of what happened over a week or so. Lots of dialogues. Lots of people. That’s it. There is no emotion in the book which makes this quite boring. There is no actual conflict as such. Well, there is. But that’s generic and doesn’t make the readers feel for it. And the end! Well, don’t even get me started on that. It was abrupt and not convincing.

 

What are the ingredients of love? Is it lying, cheating, and sleeping with each other? Apart from the fact that one is beautiful or handsome, of course. I had high expectations from the book because of the blurb. I am not a fan of meaningless boy-meets-girl Mills & Boons kind of love story. Sadly, this book is not even in that league. This is pathetic. Yet I read to see how bad this could become. And trust me, it was bad beyond my imagination. The book blurb is the only good part. These are the kind of books I wish were banned.

 

Rating

Let me not disrespect numbers!

 

*** SPOILER ALERT***

Book Blurb Vs The Book

• A charming restaurant – If you say so because there were not many details for readers to experience its charm. Is it charming because of the red and white checkered table cloth? Well, that’s the only thing (apart from the painting) that is mentioned several times in the book!
• A romantic meeting – A romantic meeting? When was that exactly? There was no meeting that was romantic other than the one where a self-imposing guy tries to flirt with a girl who is visibly not interested in him (Well, because he has a beard. Yes, that’s the reason and the only one. Not because he is too invasive)
• While in the midst of a breakup-induced depression, Aurélie Bredin, a beautiful Parisian restaurateur, discovers an astonishing novel in a quaint bookshop on the Ile Saint-Louis. Inexplicably, her restaurant and Aurélie herself are featured in its pages. After reading the whole book in one night, she realizes it has saved her life - These are the sentences that ushered me into the self-induced torture which I endured for six hours over two days. Honestly, the magical book that changed her life is described for the sake of it. And how did it save her life is beyond my understanding.
• And she wishes more than anything to meet its author – I mean trying to reach out to the author to thank him for referencing the restaurant and being inspired enough by the “beautiful” chef to make her as the books’ heroine is alright. It could happen. We may do that. But to imagine him to be the soulmate aka love-of-my-life types is a cringe. I mean seriously!
• Filled with books, recipes, and characters that leap off the page – Books? There was one exactly. Recipes? Well yes, there were a couple of them in the end which is more like an appendix than part of the narrative. Characters? There were way too many than needed.
• The Ingredients of Love by Nicolas Barreau is a tribute to the City of Light – In That case, what a sad tribute to the City of Light. In fact, it kind of made Paris appear unsafe to a foreign reader like me because even the cop flirts. Women are always objectified by everyone.