Amateur Amalgam

March 11, 2026

I’m back with another book! I really liked this one, I thought I wasn’t going to but it turned out to be much more fun than I expected. Fun is relative of course, I’m sure some of the characters in the book wouldn’t agree that this was fun but they’re not here and I am.

This one is part satire and part critique, all fantastic – Dorothy Daniels is a food critic who loves what she does, and through her memoir (which is the book) she tells us of her time growing up, her career, her relationships, and her ultimate downfall; the thing that lands her in prison.

I read this quite a while ago so I don’t remember much of the details, but I do remember how I felt while reading it, and I remember the excitement of getting to the reveals for each of the relationships in her life. She doesn’t exactly blame others for her actions, but she does try to justify them via the badness/hypocrisy of the actions of others.

The cover of this book is actually the thing that drew me towards it the most. It’s a painting by Italian Baroque artist Bernardino Mei called Ghismunda; the character from the Decameron. She squeezes the heart of her secret lover, given to her as a gift from her father as punishment for acting dishonourably, with tears running down her face. She isn’t in despair though, she is resolute. Much like our Dorothy.

Since this is a memoir, we already know what happens so there isn’t any tension exactly – at least not in the kind of normal mystery story tension. What we the audience are waiting to find out is the how and why of her crimes. She intertwines her stories with little observations about womanhood and society but she never fully expands and expects us to just agree with her. She is educated and considers herself to be very well informed and if you can keep up then you’re interesting, otherwise you aren’t worth her time.

The writing style is of a similar mind (obviously since this is a pseudo-biography) – she writes like one who exists in high society; somewhere between condescending and pretentious, but not directly insulting. Like when you pick up a fancy magazine and you momentarily experience a world you didn’t know existed, you know? That might upset some people, but I had a great time.

Spoilers Ahead!

Her descriptions are so vivid in a way that perfectly brings to mind the things that she’s talking about; like I’ve never had some of the dishes that she describes, but I swear it’s like I can taste it in my mouth as she’s talking about it. The lady, of course, is crazy, but I like the way that she’s telling her story.

Every chapter begins with the name of a dish or drink that’s relevant to what she’s saying, and she begins her story near the end (of the exciting bit anyway – the thing that led to her downfall).

She goes through her murders of the men in her life, the why, what, when, where, and how (we know the who). Since she’s writing her memoir from prison, she can’t really get in any more trouble so she’s being honest – or as honest as one can be – and sparing no details. At least not the ones that interest her; this is the rationale that we get for the book existing in the first place. The story is told in loops of time – something from the past connects to something from the present (ie. murder).

Her first was an accident, the rest deliberate:

• Giovanni – hit with a car and impaled (she took his liver and ate it)
• Andrew – dead via carbon monoxide poisoning (she took his butt cheeks and ate them)
• Gil – drowned and asphyxiated (she took his tongue and ate it)
• Marco- butchered as a “mockery of the Kosher way” (she took his stomach and pecs but only ate the brisket)

And finally the one she got arrested for:

• Casimir – she stabbed and burned him – no eating.

Unlike the others, she killed him without cause or an emotional connection, and this was what brought her down, sort of. With each murder she gets a little more messy about the kill. With each one she wanted a specific body part so she is particular about the kill, but with Casimir this desire is lacking.

As a lover of cop shows, that ‘where do you buy your meat’ scene between her and the detective was crazy! Here, Dorothy was thinking someone told on her and she ended up telling on herself. We also learn of a 6th man – Alex. This is a man that had the potential to make her a “good” person, but she chose not to marry him because she found the version of herself that was with him, boring.

We also see that Emma’s betrayal is manufactured in her mind and her paranoia was her ultimate downfall – she tried to kill Emma and was witnessed by the police doing so.