Bloomsbury
Review by Brian Tanguay
I thoroughly enjoyed Mark Kulansky’s new novel, Cheesecake, set in the Upper West Side of Manhattan in the 1980s. West 86th street to be precise. Kurlansky captures the feel of the neighborhood, and its denizens who give the place its grit and soul. But West 86th is a street in transition, real estate investors are circling, and will inevitably drive out the bakeries and little shops, cafes and family-run restaurants.
Kurlansky is the author of numerous books, including Salt, 1968, and The Cod’s Tale. He is, to put it simply, a damn fine writer and he’s crafted a delightful story around cheesecake, which may have been perfected in New York City but its origins reach back much further in time, all the way to Rome and the right-wing politician referred to as Cato the Elder. A brilliant orator, soldier, and critic of Roman corruption, who wrote in Latin because he wasn’t particularly fond of Greek. One book of Cato’s to survive the ravages of time is titled: De Agricultura. Primarily concerned with preparing land, raising livestock, and managing slaves, De Agricultura also contains recipes, making it one of the oldest known cookbooks. One of the two recipes for cheesecake in Cato’s book plays a key role in the novel.
Among an intriguing cast of characters, Mimi Landau struck me as the most quintessentially New York. Quirky, feisty, and always attired in black, Mimi knows everyone in the neighborhood from fourteen years of walking her black standard poodle. Mimi lost her husband, then her poodle, but she gets on with life, turning her restaurant-quality kitchen into a baking business. She doesn’t know much about baking — she trained as a biologist — but visits to the Hungarian bakeries on Seventy-Second Street give her ideas. Before long she’s running a catering business serving the art world, inviting artists and musicians to her apartment for six-course meals that become famous. Everyone wants to eat her food. She collects art and artists. Life is good until Art Katsikas — the Greek– buys her building and begins raising rents. “The old New Yorkers who had characterized the neighborhood — social workers, teachers, magazine writers — were being driven out.” When Mimi’s income exceeds the limit for her rent stabilized apartment, she knows her days in the building are numbered. She’ll never be able to pay the fair market rate.
Orbiting around Cato’s cheesecake recipe, the characters scheme and compete, not only to make the best cheesecake, but to keep their neighborhood from completely disappearing. Cheesecake is a buoyant and entertaining read. An additional treat is the Appendix, replete with cheesecake history and dozens of recipes.
