The Debt to Pleasure: A Novel

John Lanchester

Macmillan, Dec 7, 2001 - Fiction - 272 pages

Winner of the Whitbread Award for Best First Novel and a New York Times Notable Book, John Lanchester's The Debt to Pleasure is a wickedly funny ode to food.

Traveling from Portsmouth to the south of France, Tarquin Winot, the book's snobbish narrator, instructs us in his philosophy on everything from the erotics of dislike to the psychology of the menu. Under the guise of completing a cookbook, Winot is in fact on a much more sinister mission that only gradually comes to light.

What people are saying

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - lisahistory - LibraryThing

The ultimate in snarky, pompous narrators leads the reader through his own plot, liberally spiced with tempting recipes and twisty recollections of his own earlier life. The use of language ...

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - Eyejaybee - LibraryThing

This is a dazzling book, and all the more impressive in that it was John Lanchester’s first novel, although he had already established himself as a respected journalist and columnist. Beautifully ...

About the author

John Lanchester was the deputy editor of the London Review of Books and the restaurant critic for the London Observer. He is the author of The Debt to Pleasure and Mr. Phillips, and his work has appeared in The New Yorker. He lives in London.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Debt to Pleasure: A Novel
• Author: John Lanchester
• Edition: reprint
• Publisher: Macmillan, 2001
• ISBN: 0312420366, 9780312420369
• Length: 272 pages
• Subjects: Fiction / Humorous / General; Fiction / Literary; Fiction / Urban & Street Lit; Fiction / World Literature / England / 20th Century