Stanley Park

By Timothy Taylor

A young chef who revels in local bounty, a long-ago murder that remains unsolved, the homeless of Stanley Park, a smooth-talking businessman named Dante — these are the ingredients of Timothy Taylor's stunning debut novel — Kitchen Confidential meets The Edible Woman.

Trained in France, Jeremy Papier, the young Vancouver chef, is becoming known for his unpretentious dishes that highlight fresh, local ingredients. His restaurant, The Monkey's Paw Bistro, while struggling financially, is attracting the attention of local foodies, and is not going unnoticed by Dante Beale, owner of a successful coffeehouse chain, Dante's Inferno. Meanwhile, Jeremy's father, an eccentric anthropologist, has moved into Stanley Park to better acquaint himself with the homeless and their daily struggles for food, shelter and company. Jeremy's father also has a strange fascination for a years-old unsolved murder case, known as "The Babes in the Wood" and asks Jeremy to help him research it.

Dante is dying to get his hands on The Monkey's Paw. When Jeremy's elaborate financial kite begins to fall, he is forced to sell to Dante and become his employee. The restaurant is closed for renovations, Inferno style. Jeremy plans a menu for opening night that he intends to be the greatest culinary statement he's ever made, one that unites the homeless with high foody society in a paparazzi-covered celebration of "local splendour."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Dec 17, 2010
• ISBN: 9780307363596

Timothy Taylor

Timothy Taylor, PhD is the author of The Buried Soul and The Prehistory of Sex. He has appeared on the History Channel, the Discovery Channel, and National Geographic specials. He contributes to such publications as Nature, Scientific American, and World Archaeology, and is editor-in-chief of the Journal of World Prehistory. He teaches archaeology at the University of Bradford in the United Kingdom.

Reviews for Stanley Park

[yarb_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Through the parallel plotlines of a hip young locavore chef and his guerrilla-anthropologist father, this novel explores the theme of place, of rootedness, of identity derived from connection to the land or the wilful repudiation of such a connection. Unfortunately, and I guess inevitably given its subject, it's hopelessly rooted in its own time and place, such that if you’re not au fait with Vancouver circa 1995 a hell of a lot of this story is going to be lost on you. The book is jammed with street names and other left-coast references that will do nothing for non-Vancouverites. The other issue is the abundance of annoying characters. Our hero, Jeremy, is more or less agreeable, but his Stanley Park-dwelling dad is smug and self-mysterious, and pulling Jez in the other direction is coffee mogul wanker Dante Beale, who is of course supposed> to be a PITA but jeez we spend a lot of time in his rancid company. There's also a precocious child, and I can’t stand precocious children. Stanley Park> isn't a bad novel though. It does have something to say and it's stuffed with filthy food porn, even (especially) when things get ultra-locavore in a wonderfully written climactic scene.

[librarycin · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Jeremy is a chef in Vancouver and owns his own small restaurant, with the focus being on local food; however, he has run up a lot of bills to make a go of this place, and it's catching up to him. His dad is an anthropology professor, conducting a study of homeless people in Stanley Park. The Professor is also interested in a murder of two children, a cold case from the late 40s/early 50s.Some parts were more interesting than others. It was the unsolved murder that drew me to the book to begin with, but there was so little about it in the book, and past the initial description of it (apparently, this really is a cold case in Vancouver), what was there just didn't hold my interest very much. The food aspect of the book didn't do anything for me (in fact, I wouldn't have eaten a single thing mentioned in the book, but then, I'm not at all adventurous with food), although the restaurant part got more interesting as the story went on. The Professor and his homeless friends were pretty boring, I thought. Overall, despite my mostly negative comments, I'd consider the book "o.k.", but nothing more.

[ajbraithwaite_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Loved the foodie, living-from-the-land theme of this novel and its overall message of the importance of working out what it is that is really important in a person's life. At one point in the first half of the book I got slightly frustrated with Jeremy's financial woes and thought it wasn't entirely convincing that he wouldn't have talked to Jules and to Olli about them sooner than he did. But once that part was past, I really enjoyed the second half of the book.

[ruthseeley · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Please tell me that someone is going to make a film of this book - the climactic scene when Jeremy opens his new restaurant is just begging to be filmed.

[vivaval · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I found this book to be such an easy and enjoyable read. The characters are really interesting and well-developed, especially Jeremy, the Professor, Caruzo, Jules and Benny. I love Timothy Taylor's way with words; I could totally picture the scenes he describes.I loved the behind-the-scenes look at the kitchen of a busy restaurant, plus most of the food described is mouth-wateringly delicious!There are several subplots in Stanley Park, and most of them are interesting. For the most part, I like the way they intertwine with each other, but I'm not sure all of them are necessary, or that Taylor ties them all together well. For example, the little boy Trout has some significance in this novel, but I never did figure out where he fits in.Overall, this is a fun and thought-provoking book, but I wouldn't say it's one of my favourites.

[thatwoman_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Creepy, unsettling book of food and mystery and politics.