Laurie Woolever

Fascinating glimpses of the beloved cultural journalist in the words of scores f people who knew and/or worked with Anthony Bourdain from childhood and over the many years and different iterations of his life. While I appreciate leaving all these individuals’ words intact, I was disappointed in the format of just quote upon quote with no narrative to make it flow. I am hard-pressed to call Laurie Woolever the "author"; "edited by" seems more appropriate given that there was no narrative to tie all these individual quotes together.… (meer)

Since I will never read a new book of Tony's again, this is the next best thing - a comprehensive portrait of the man by those who knew him best. It is, thankfully, not a hagiography - he was no saint. I'm also glad that the focus is not on his death but him as a person and, mostly, the twenty years of his life after Kitchen Confidential. The parts that are "missing" I'm glad are missing - there is nothing from Eric Ripert about his final days and his girlfriend at the time of his death is not included at all. Ariane, his daughter, has the closing reflection of the book, a fitting tribute to her dad. For the past three years we've been searching for his voice as we all navigate through this crazy world and I finally feel like I can stop looking - he's gone, and this book will help everyone appreciate him, but acknowledge that there will never be another like him and for his fans, we just need to take his message, "be a traveler not a tourist" to heart and travel in his memory and finally say goodbye.… (meer)