I loved Kitchen Confidential and when I first read it I sought out most of Bourdain’s other writing. I liked his travel TV. I was saddened when he died.
I’m watching Roadrunner on CNN. Lots of people loved the guy. But there must have been half a dozen books since his death. It seems a little much. Anyone agree?
I was just thinking the same thing today when I noticed that almost every time I go to CNN’s website there are multiple articles about him and videos of or about him on the front page, as if he’d just died a few days ago. How long is it necessary to keep eulogizing one man?
No, I think he just left a really, really enduring legacy. Bourdain’s personality, his narrative voice both as a writer and as a show host, and the interesting content of his shows and books, really connected with people effectively. Maybe it’s a cynical cash grab to still be releasing Bourdain’s works, but they wouldn’t be doing it if the demand wasn’t there.
He was much beloved and is very missed.
Gotta promote CNN+ even if it means a Weekend at Bernies-style puppet show of one of their former top celebrity personalities. If Anderson Cooper kicked the bucket they’d probably resort to animatronic animation of the corpse.
Stranger
There were books. Another cookbook. A “World Travel” book of hotels he stayed at. A book of quotes. An ultimate autobiography. A memorial book. I hope his kid or causes he felt worthy gets a good share of the profiteering.
Sure he was a fascinating guy. “Young. Old. Gay. Straight. Black. White. Undocumentef immigrant. Country of origin. Who cares? Only one thing matters. Can you make an omelette, or not?”
I expected something like that to be done to Lenin. Technology has expanded in a hundred years.
Can’t be long before a recording of Bourdain singing his favourite punk songs?
Or a theme restaurant?
Maybe they could serve bread to represent his body and wine to represent his blood. And have lots of iconography depicting his death on the walls.
After all the hagiographies have been written, perhaps someone can write a hatchet job about how his whole persona was fake etc
They could call it “Exploding Anthony Bourdain”
Which is what I keep reading every damn time I see this thread title.
This happens with every celebrity where there is profit potential. After musicians die, producers find unreleased recordings that the musician thought were too shitty to publish, even rough demos, but after they die the hardcore fans will buy anything. The same thing happens with writers–they dig up unfinished works and have another author complete them.
Care to elaborate on your viewpoint on this?
It was merely a setup to a lame joke, plus also perhaps a comment on the way the celebrity industry likes to exploit people by lionising them, then exploit people by tearing them down.
I wasn’t intending to suggest that his persona actually was fake. I liked the guy and found him very genuine.
I guess parading the corpse of Bourdain around didn’t make their shitty paid streaming service successful after all:
Stranger
I’m pleased to see other people offended by this, and now to hear CNN+ is a failure too. Sometimes the world can recover from temporary instabilities.
I never checked it out. There does not seem to be a dearth of streaming services. It is unfortunate, since now if you want to enjoy past episodes of Bourdain you are limited to the mere eight daily hours on CNN - when they reshow episodes back to back.
I guess those “Subscription for Life” CNN Plus deals I saw were a bad investment.
Yet another book coming out on Bourdain. Having read a couple by his crew, and seen the documentary, that is enough for me.
I like the guy. So did millions - Bourdain’s one of these shy guys, though he improved greatly over the years, with deep thoughts and an interesting background who went to some genuinely difficult and conflicted places. A very good writer, he was able to find common threads of humanity anywhere he ventured, appreciate some local food, discuss places and their politics and history with nuance and compassion and without condescension. Obviously this had some costs. Unlike Trump, he really did often say things that others would not.
He put cooking on the map. Kitchen Confidential is a masterpiece, his other works almost as good. His cookbooks are a combination of winning recipes, and some pretty terrible ones.
Previous works interviewed all his friends and co-workers and painted a pretty full picture. Sure, the new book supposedly contains more negative aspects. What good to dwell on them now? People loved the Herriot books too. Reading his biography provided a little insight, but not much light.
Is yet another book really needed?
It was certainly “needed” by the new author who hoped to cash in, yet again, on Bourdain’s name recognition.
Sad that that is all the reason needed, but I fear that it is.
True. But that is the only reason.