Name: The Telling Room
ISBN: 9780385337007

Michael Paterniti

The author of the best-selling Driving Mr. Albert recounts his visit to the medieval Castilian village of Guzman as part of a decade-long effort to taste the world's finest cheese, an encounter that involved him in long-held regional secrets and the story of a heartbroken genius cheesemaker.

A Tale of Love, Betrayal, Revenge, and the World's Greatest Piece of Cheese

The Telling Room

Mary Rose Luksha

This is another case of wishing Goodreads had the option of half star ratings! I'd love to give this book 3.5 stars, but decided to rate up.

I agree with other reviews that this book is unfocused at times. There are sections that are really lovely, but they're fragmented somehow, maybe because as a journalist the author is more used to writing short pieces?

But the reason I rated it up despite its feeling disjointed, is because I understood how the author was trying to connect the story - I just don't think he executed it very well. 

The story of the cheese is fascinating. It's beautiful and vivid, and Paterniti clearly loves Ambrosio the person and the character, that much is clear. Then there's Michael's story - about moving to Spain, wanting to live a slower life, connect to his children and the paradox of seeing them in his memory and as real people. Then in the middle there was a sort of third story about how hard it was to write the book. I could've done without the sections explaining that this book was hard to write, who wants to read something the author admits to having a hard time nailing down? Paterniti's lack of focus is obvious to the reader, he doesn't have to point it out to us. 

Even the sections about Paterniti's story versus Ambrosio's became tedious, but I wanted to get to the end to see if things get resolved. But what I took away from the book is that all we really have are stories. And when someone else tells your story, they put a little bit of themselves in it, it can't be helped. So Paterniti added himself in and we were able to grow and learn and filter through his eyes. It felt very meta and I was super into it. I just think the way he added himself in made the book a little clunky.

Couldn't finish the book. Too dry for me and I didn't care about the characters or story enough to finish. Put it down 1/2 way through and gave up on finishing. Just not that into it!!

The Telling Room A Tale of Love, Betrayal, Revenge, and the World's Greatest Piece of Cheese