New Yorker writer Dana Goodyear combines the style of Mary Roach with the on-the-ground food savvy of Anthony Bourdain in a rollicking narrative look at the shocking extremes of the contemporary American food world.
A new American cuisine is forming. Animals never before considered or long since forgotten are emerging as delicacies. Parts that used to be for scrap are centerpieces. Ash and hay are fashionable ingredients, and you pay handsomely to breathe flavored air. Going out to a nice dinner now often precipitates a confrontation with a fundamental question: Is that food?
Dana Goodyear’s anticipated debut, Anything That Moves, is simultaneously a humorous adventure, a behind-the-scenes look at, and an attempt to understand the implications of the way we eat. This is a universe populated by insect-eaters and blood drinkers, avant-garde chefs who make food out of roadside leaves and wood, and others who serve endangered species and Schedule I drugs—a cast of characters, in other words, who flirt with danger, taboo, and disgust in pursuit of the sublime. Behind them is an intricate network of scavengers, dealers, and pitchmen responsible for introducing the rare and exotic into the marketplace. This is the fringe of the modern American meal, but to judge from history, it will not be long before it reaches the family table. Anything That Moves is a highly entertaining, revelatory look into the raucous, strange, fascinatingly complex world of contemporary American food culture, and the places where the extreme is bleeding into the mainstream.
“[Anything That Moves] won me over on its second page…[Goodyear is] the possessor of a gentle, almost demure prose style. Today’s best-known food writers tend to be noisy boys; her soothing sentences are a balm.” –THE NEW YORK TIMES
“Anything That Moves is frenetic and fascinating and turns the stomach.” –BLOOMBERG BUSINESSWEEK
“I don’t think I’ve ever used the word disgusting as a compliment, but here goes. Goodyear’s riveting, hilarious, disturbing and downright disgusting new book is the perfect antidote to a Martha Stewart Thanksgiving. This journalistic thriller…[is] a window onto a world of chefs, purveyors, farmers, scavengers and gonzo foodies.” – MORE Magazine
“This is fascinating and occasionally horrifying stuff, and it’s a must-read for anyone who cares about what we eat, how we eat it, and why. Fun, fast-paced, and highly recommended.” –BOOKRIOT
“Thanks partly to Goodyear’s skill as a storyteller and partly to her balance of skepticism and affection, Anything That Moves is an unceasingly entertaining book….Food editors need people like her. Anyone who can write so wisely and entertainingly about eating rarities is a rarity herself.” –SLATE
“It is precisely because I am not a foodie that I found such immense pleasure in reading Dana Goodyear’s Anything That Moves: Renegade Chefs, Fearless Eaters, and the Making of a New American Food Culture. It was like reading Bruce Chatwin on Patagonia or Ryszard Kapuściński on Ethiopia, maybe even Norman Mailer on war.” –NEWSWEEK
“Goodyear is a witty writer with a sly humor that makes her a genial guide to such a strange and diverse counterculture.” –LOS ANGELES TIMES
“Goodyear is an extraordinary adept reporter and observer. I can’t think of another writer who could have done justice to the material. …highly enjoyable and memorable journey through the brave and strange new world of avant garde cuisine.” –BOSTON GLOBE
“Venturing deep into the underground foodie culture, New Yorker contributor Goodyear plunges into the world of dedicated individuals who routinely skirt the boundaries imposed by common culinary practices and tastes. Goodyear’s exploration of this engrossing and morally complex topic provides a solid footing for hearty conversations.” –KIRKUS, starred review
“Dana Goodyear may be our finest longform food journalist. The New Yorker staff writer . . . has written for that magazine on California’s unpasteurized milk movement and Los Angeles’s underground Wolvesmouth restaurant. She does not disappoint here, in an exploration (partly culled from her New Yorker pieces) of what she calls ‘the outer bounds of food culture,’ which includes everything from the Las Vegas food scene (a frightening notion) to head-to-tail butchering. Anyone who writes about eating ‘stinkbugs’ is worth reading.”—THE ATLANTIC WIRE
“Anything That Moves so accurately describes the remaking of our modern food culture in America that I swear I can taste it. The immense social change movement surrounding food in our country requires serious thought and intelligent perspective…I loved this book!” —Andrew Zimmern
“Reporting on the margins of food culture, Dana Goodyear reveals much about the broader comedy of manners and morals in American life.”—Adam Gopnik