Guo Yue

[Music, Food and Love] by Guo Yue is a memoir of a man who lived before, during and after the Cultural Revolution in China. Born to a musician father and a foreign language teacher mother, and one of 6 children, Yue was a precocious child who showed musical talent and a love of food from a young age. His father passes away and the children are separated from their mother during the Cultural Revolution when she's taken away to the countryside to be 're-educated'.

The writing is rather stilted and reads like someone writing diary entries. The descriptions of the simple home cooked foods in China were not sufficiently expressive to invoke the aroma, texture and flavors of the dishes. Having been to Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Xian, I found the descriptions did not do justice to the memory of the food I enjoyed there.

The are recipes at the back of the book for the meals described in the book which may appeal to some readers interested in Chinese home cooking.… (meer)