''Kafka's Soup'' is a literary

pastiche A pastiche is a work of visual art, literature, theatre, music, or architecture that imitates the style or character of the work of one or more other artists. Unlike parody, pastiche pays homage to the work it imitates, rather than mocking it ...

in the form of a

cookbook A cookbook or cookery book is a kitchen reference containing recipes. Cookbooks may be general, or may specialize in a particular cuisine or category of food. Recipes in cookbooks are organized in various ways: by course (appetizer, first cour ...

. It contains 14 recipes each written in the style of a famous author from history. As of 2007 it had been translated into 18 languages and published in 27 countries. Excerpts from the book have appeared in the ''

Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper i ...

'' and the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

''. Theatrical performances of the recipes have taken place in France and Canada.

Recipes

Recipes include:

tiramisu Tiramisu ( it, tiramisù , from , "pick me up" or "cheer me up") is a coffee-flavoured Italian dessert. It is made of ladyfingers (savoiardi) dipped in coffee, layered with a whipped mixture of eggs, sugar, and mascarpone cheese, flavoured w ...

as made by

Proust Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust (; ; 10 July 1871 – 18 November 1922) was a French novelist, critic, and essayist who wrote the monumental novel ''In Search of Lost Time'' (''À la recherche du temps perdu''; with the previous Eng ...

cheese on toast Cheese on toast is made by placing sliced or grated cheese on toasted bread and melting it under a grill. It is popular in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, the Caribbean and in African countries. It is also known as ro ...

Harold Pinter Harold Pinter (; 10 October 1930 – 24 December 2008) was a British playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. A Nobel Prize winner, Pinter was one of the most influential modern British dramatists with a writing career that spanne ...

clafoutis Clafoutis (; oc, clafotís or ), sometimes spelled clafouti in Anglophone countries, is a baked French dessert of fruit, traditionally black cherries, arranged in a buttered dish and covered with a thick flan-like batter. The clafoutis is ...

grandmere by

Virginia Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer, considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device. Woolf was born i ...

chocolate cake Chocolate cake or chocolate gâteau (from ) is a cake flavored with melted chocolate, cocoa powder, or both. History Chocolate cake is made with chocolate. It can also include other ingredients. These include fudge, vanilla creme, and other ...

prepared by

Irvine Welsh Irvine Welsh (born 27 September 1958) is a Scottish novelist, playwright and short story writer. His 1993 novel '' Trainspotting'' was made into a film of the same name. He has also written plays and screenplays, and directed several short fil ...

, lamb with dill sauce by

Raymond Chandler Raymond Thornton Chandler (July 23, 1888 – March 26, 1959) was an American-British novelist and screenwriter. In 1932, at the age of forty-four, Chandler became a detective fiction writer after losing his job as an oil company executive durin ...

, onion tart by

Chaucer Geoffrey Chaucer (; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for '' The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He w ...

, fenkata ( rabbit stew) by

Homer Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the ...

, boned stuffed

poussins Nicolas Poussin (, , ; June 1594 – 19 November 1665) was the leading painter of the classical French Baroque style, although he spent most of his working life in Rome. Most of his works were on religious and mythological subjects painted for a ...

by the

Marquis de Sade Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade (; 2 June 1740 – 2 December 1814), was a French nobleman, revolutionary politician, philosopher and writer famous for his literary depictions of a libertine sexuality as well as numerous accusat ...

, mushroom

risotto Risotto (, , from meaning "rice") is a northern Italian rice dish cooked with broth until it reaches a creamy consistency. The broth can be derived from meat, fish, or vegetables. Many types of risotto contain butter, onion, white wine, and Par ...

John Steinbeck John Ernst Steinbeck Jr. (; February 27, 1902 – December 20, 1968) was an American writer and the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature winner "for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humor and keen social ...

, tarragon eggs by

Jane Austen Jane Austen (; 16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817) was an English novelist known primarily for her six major novels, which interpret, critique, and comment upon the British landed gentry at the end of the 18th century. Austen's plots of ...

, Vietnamese chicken by

Graham Greene Henry Graham Greene (2 October 1904 – 3 April 1991) was an English writer and journalist regarded by many as one of the leading English novelists of the 20th century. Combining literary acclaim with widespread popularity, Greene acquir ...

and

Kafka Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a German-speaking Bohemian novelist and short-story writer, widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of realism and the fantastic. It typ ...

Miso soup is a traditional Japanese soup consisting of a dashi stock into which softened miso paste is mixed. In addition, there are many optional ingredients (various vegetables, tofu, ''abura-age'', etc.) that may be added depending on regional and sea ...

. Also included are recipes in the style of

Jorge Luis Borges Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo (; ; 24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986) was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, as well as a key figure in Spanish-language and international literature. His best-known bo ...

and

Gabriel García Márquez Gabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez (; 6 March 1927 – 17 April 2014) was a Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter, and journalist, known affectionately as Gabo () or Gabito () throughout Latin America. Considered one ...

. Among the recipes that did not make the original edition of the book was "

plum pudding Christmas pudding is sweet dried-fruit pudding traditionally served as part of Christmas dinner in Britain and other countries to which the tradition has been exported. It has its origins in medieval England, with early recipes making use of d ...

à la

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...

" which was written but rejected by Mark Crick for being "too long-winded". It was, however, included in a subsequent paperback edition of the book along with two recipes,

Rösti Rösti or rööschti () is a Swiss dish consisting mainly of potatoes, sautéed or shallow-fried in a pan. It was originally a breakfast dish, commonly eaten by farmers in the canton of Bern, but is now eaten all over Switzerland and around th ...

à la

Thomas Mann Paul Thomas Mann ( , ; ; 6 June 1875 – 12 August 1955) was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novella ...

and moules marinieres à la

Italo Calvino Italo Calvino (, also , ;. RAI (circa 1970), retrieved 25 October 2012. 15 October 1923 – 19 September 1985) was an Italian writer and journalist. His best known works include the ''Our Ancestors'' trilogy (1952–1959), the '' Cosmicomi ...

, originally created for the German and Italian translations respectively. ''Kafka's Soup'' is illustrated with paintings by the author in the style of a number of famous artists including

Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...

Matisse Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known prima ...

, Hogarth,

De Chirico Giuseppe Maria Alberto Giorgio de Chirico ( , ; 10 July 1888 – 20 November 1978) was an Italian artist and writer born in Greece. In the years before World War I, he founded the '' scuola metafisica'' art movement, which profoundly influ ...

Henry Moore Henry Spencer Moore (30 July 1898 – 31 August 1986) was an English artist. He is best known for his semi- abstract monumental bronze sculptures which are located around the world as public works of art. As well as sculpture, Moore produced ...

Egon Schiele Egon Leo Adolf Ludwig Schiele (; 12 June 1890 – 31 October 1918) was an Austrian Expressionist painter. His work is noted for its intensity and its raw sexuality, and for the many self-portraits the artist produced, including nude self-portr ...

and

Warhol Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the Art movement, visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore th ...

. ''Kafka's Soup'' is Mark Crick's first book. He has subsequently written two other books with similar themes; '' Sartre's Sink'' and ''Machiavelli's Lawn'' which are literary pastiches in the form of a DIY handbook and a gardening book respectively.

Writing ''Kafka's Soup''

The idea for ''Kafka's Soup'' arose during a conversation between Crick and a publisher. Crick noted his dislike for cookbooks saying that he enjoyed looking at the pictures but found the accompanying text dull. When asked what would it take for him to read beyond the ingredients list he replied: "if

he text He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' in ...

was written by the world's greatest authors." The publisher liked the idea and, in Crick's words, "she said that if I wrote it she'd publish it." Most of the recipes in the book are Crick's own, although some, such as the chocolate cake, came from his friends. Crick notes the implausibility of some of his authors cooking their stated dishes (for example he states that John Steinbeck "would never have eaten ushroom risotto and "I certainly accept any challenge that Kafka would not have eaten miso soup"). He says that he selected the recipes based on the ability of each dish to allow him to use the language he wished to use. Chocolate cake was selected for Irvine Welsh because "people become terribly selfish when there's chocolate cake around, just as they do with drugs. It's the closest many get to taking heroin." Crick says that he found Virginia Woolf the most difficult of the authors to write while Raymond Chandler was the easiest.

Response

''Kafka's Soup'' has become a cult hit. Andy Miller of the ''Telegraph'' called the recipes "note-perfect parodies of literary greats". Emily Stokes of the ''Observer'' called it an "illustrated masterpiece of pastiche" citing the lamb with dill sauce as "particularly good". C J Schüler wrote that Virginia Woolf's clafoutis grandmere is the "pièce de resistance" and called the collection "irresistibly moreish". He later called the book "a little gem of literary impersonation". Schüler believes that "part of the book's appeal lies in the fact that the recipes...actually work." The French writer and satirist

Patrick Rambaud Patrick Rambaud (born 21 April 1946) is a French writer. Life Born in Paris, France, with Michel-Antoine Burnier, he wrote forty pastiches, (satirical novels). They wrote ''Le Journalisme sans peine'' (Editions Plon, 1997). In 1970, he help foun ...

has named ''Kafka's soup'' as one of his favorite parodies, noting the inclusion of parodies of continental European authors such as Proust and the Marquis de Sade in addition to English-speaking authors.

Translations

As of 2007 ''Kafka's Soup'' had been translated into 18 languages and published in 27 countries. The Croatian translation proved more popular than ''

The Da Vinci Code ''The Da Vinci Code'' is a 2003 mystery thriller novel by Dan Brown. It is Brown's second novel to include the character Robert Langdon: the first was his 2000 novel ''Angels & Demons''. ''The Da Vinci Code'' follows symbologist Robert Langdon ...

'', forcing it into second place on the country's best-seller list. Each recipe in the French version was translated by a separate translator specializing in the translation of the works of the parodied author.

Theatrical readings

In England, the recipes have reportedly been used as audition pieces by a small

West Country The West Country (occasionally Westcountry) is a loosely defined area of South West England, usually taken to include all, some, or parts of the counties of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset, Bristol, and, less commonly, Wiltshire, Gloucesters ...

theatre company. The

Théâtre de l'Atelier The Théâtre de l'Atelier is a theatre at 1, place Charles Dullin in the 18th arrondissement of Paris, France. History The theatre opened on 23 November 1822 under the name Théâtre MontmartreEdward Foreman, ''Historical dictionary of French t ...

in Paris hosted a performance of the French translation of the book in 2007. The production included performances by

Irène Jacob Irène Marie Jacob (born 15 July 1966) is a French-Swiss actress known for her work with Polish film director Krzysztof Kieślowski. She won the 1991 Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress for the Kieślowski film ''The Double Life of Vero ...

Isabelle Carré Isabelle Carré (born 28 May 1971) is a French actress. She has appeared in more than 70 films since 1989. She won a César Award for Best Actress for her role in '' Se souvenir des belles choses'' (2001), and has been nominated a further six ti ...

and

Denis Podalydès Denis Podalydès (born 22 April 1963) is a French actor and scriptwriter of Greek descent. Podalydès has appeared in more than 140 films and television shows since 1989. He starred in '' The Officers' Ward'', which was entered into the 2001 Can ...

, including a sung version of the recipe for onion tart. A live reading of the French translation of ''Kafka's Soup'' took place at the Montreal Festival International de la Littérature in 2007 with the author in attendance. The production received an additional performance run in the

Terrebonne Terrebonne, meaning ''good earth'' in French, is a name of several places in North America: ;Canada *Terrebonne, Quebec, a suburb of Montreal ** Terrebonne station, a commuter railway station in Terrebonne, Quebec **Terrebonne City Council, the go ...

suburb of Montreal in 2009.

References

{{Reflist, refs= {{cite news , title= Literary lunching in the Kaf , author= Larissa Dubecki , url= http://www.theage.com.au/news/epicure/literary-lunching-in-the-kaf/2007/10/15/1192300647568.html , newspaper=The Age , date=16 October 2007 , access-date=27 May 2011 {{cite web , url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00yw5tn , title= Loose Ends 26/02/2011 , publisher= BBC , access-date=27 May 2011 {{cite news , title= Brick lit , author= Rosie Blau , url= http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/1c3d627c-c8b6-11dd-b86f-000077b07658.html#axzz1NZ161OoQ , newspaper= Financial Times , date= 13 December 2008 , access-date=27 May 2011 {{cite news , title= Literary diet , author= John Saxby , url= http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2006/08/21/1156012473121.html , newspaper= Sydney Morning Herald , date= 22 August 2006 , access-date=27 May 2011 {{cite news , title= Kafka's Soup by Mark Crick , author= C J Schüler , url= https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/kafkas-soup-by-mark-crick-515308.html , archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090827100546/http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/kafkas-soup-by-mark-crick-515308.html , url-status= dead , archive-date= August 27, 2009 , newspaper= The Independent , date= 13 November 2005 , access-date=27 May 2011 {{cite news , title= Patrick Rambaud, chroniqueur caustique du règne sarkozyste , author= Jean-Paul Brighelli , url= http://www.marianne2.fr/Patrick-Rambaud-chroniqueur-caustique-du-regne-sarkozyste_a203412.html , newspaper= Marianne , date= 5 March 2011 , access-date= 27 May 2011 , archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110721105437/http://www.marianne2.fr/Patrick-Rambaud-chroniqueur-caustique-du-regne-sarkozyste_a203412.html , archive-date= 21 July 2011 , url-status= dead In French {{cite news , title= French literary fest goes beyond books , url= http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/arts/story.html?id=1bf53414-7be2-4772-8153-0de3ef9db19d , newspaper= Montreal Gazette , date= 22 August 2007 , access-date=27 May 2011 {{cite news , title= On the Lamb , url= https://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/03/style/tmagazine/03tlamb.html , newspaper= New York Times , date= 3 December 2006 , access-date=27 May 2011 Later editions contain 17 recipes due to the inclusion of recipes written for the German and Italian editions and the incorporation of a previously rejected recipe in the style of Charles Dickens. {{cite news , title= Between homelands , author= Emily Stokes , url= https://www.theguardian.com/books/2007/nov/18/features.review1 , newspaper= The Observer , date= 18 November 2007 , access-date=27 May 2011 {{cite news , title= The ultimate literary lunch: recipes from classic authors , author= C J Schüler , url= https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/the-ultimate-literary-lunch-recipes-from-classic-authors-450181.html , archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080531073851/http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/the-ultimate-literary-lunch-recipes-from-classic-authors-450181.html , url-status= dead , archive-date= May 31, 2008 , newspaper= The Independent , date= 24 May 2007 , access-date=27 May 2011 {{cite news , title= In the Kitchen with Kafka , author= Joanna Rabiger , url= http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/authors/interviews/article/11406-in-the-kitchen-with-kafka.html , newspaper= Publishers Weekly , date= 8 September 2006 , access-date=27 May 2011 {{cite news , title= Sartre sinks in for Mark Crick , author= Will Gore , url= http://www.surreycomet.co.uk/leisure/4347433.Sartre_sinks_in_for_Mark_Crick/ , newspaper= Surrey Comet , date= 6 May 2009 , access-date= 27 May 2011 , archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110929210431/http://www.surreycomet.co.uk/leisure/4347433.Sartre_sinks_in_for_Mark_Crick/ , archive-date= 29 September 2011 , url-status= dead {{cite news , title= If Kafka made the dinner... , author= Catherine Milner , url= https://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/3321254/If-Kafka-made-the-dinner....html , newspaper= Telegraph , date= 27 August 2005 , access-date=27 May 2011 {{cite news , title= Christmas books: Humour , author= Andy Miller , url= https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/fictionreviews/3669503/Christmas-books-Humour.html , newspaper= Telegraph , date= 24 November 2007 , access-date=27 May 2011 {{cite news , title= Quand l'appétit va , author= Tristan Malavoy-Racine , url= http://www.voir.ca/publishing/article.aspx?zone=1§ion=8&article=62563 , newspaper= Voir , date= 22 January 2009 , access-date=28 May 2011 In French Parody books Cookbooks 2005 non-fiction books Cultural depictions of writers Cultural depictions of Franz Kafka Cultural depictions of Homer Cultural depictions of Virginia Woolf Works about the Marquis de Sade