Gary Taubes wrote another
book.
Gary Taubes! (*Fangirl squee!*)
Do I really need to say more?
I don’t, but since this is my
blog, I will.
TL;DR: I loved this book and
you will too. READ IT.
If you don’t read a lot of
blogs and websites outside the low carb bubble, then allow me to tell you that
there’s a large contingent of people who loathe Taubes. He takes a boatload of
criticism, as does anyone who writes something that condemns or exonerates
something other people love or hate (e.g., red meat and saturated fats, refined carbohydrates, and raw milk). But put me squarely in the camp that loves his work and is grateful
for his meticulous research. (The endnotes and bibliography of Good Calories, Bad Calories are almost
as large as my entire book.) I’m not saying he’s right about everything, nor that I agree
with him on everything. I’m only saying I’m a big fan and have been for several
years.
I had the pleasure of meeting
Gary in spring 2017, first at a reading and book signing in Washington, DC, and
then a few weeks later at a literary event in Charlottesville, VA. I actually
drove him from Charlottesville back up to Dulles airport in my neck of the
woods, so we had some time to chat and shoot the low carb breeze. Let me tell
you, folks: I read GCBC during my deployment in
Iraq, circa 2008. Having always been a sucker for salt & pepper hair,
intellect, and a wry and somewhat
dark sense of humor, I developed an immediate nerd crush on Gary. Never in my
wildest imagination—and mine is pretty wild—did I think nine years later, I’d
have him all to myself on the road for two hours.
Get your minds out of the
gutter. Nothing happened except good conversation and Gary being an
exceptionally good sport about the fact that my decade-old car has seen better
days. (He assured me that his car is older and in even worse disrepair. We writers
don’t exactly break the bank; not even ones like Gary, who garner big advances
and have multiple bestsellers to their names.) Without revealing too much, I’ll
say that it was really nice to talk with a writer of Gary’s caliber, and to
find out that many of the emotional demons that plague me are not unique to me.
Gary deals with his by throwing himself into work; I deal with mine by avoiding work. Neither strategy is all
that healthy, long term. But I can look to Gary as someone with a lot of dark
thoughts and inner turmoil who still manages to get shit done produce
great work. It helps that he has a wife and two sons depending on him, so he
sort of has to bring home the
proverbial (and literal) bacon.
As an aside, Gary has spent
time in France, and he longs for it. As he talked about it, his desire to be
there—and, maybe, to be the person he was when he was there—was palpable. He
has also written and spoken a lot about his history as a smoker. I could totally see him as the quintessential
ex-pat, sitting at a roadside café in Paris, sipping coffee and reading poetry, complete
with a black turtleneck and a cigarette.
But enough about Gary. On to
the book!
