• The Upstairs Delicatessen

  • On Eating, Reading, Reading About Eating, and Eating While Reading
  • By: Dwight Garner
  • Narrated by: Christopher P. Brown
  • Length: 6 hrs and 36 mins
  • 4.1 out of 5 stars (9 ratings)

Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.
The Upstairs Delicatessen  By  cover art

The Upstairs Delicatessen

By: Dwight Garner
Narrated by: Christopher P. Brown
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $17.19

Buy for $17.19

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

Reading and eating, like Krazy and Ignatz, Sturm und Drang, prosciutto and melon, Simon and Schuster, and radishes and butter, have always, for me, simply gone together. The book is a product of these combined gluttonies.

Dwight Garner, the beloved New York Times critic and the author of Garner's Quotations, serves up the intertwined pleasures of books and food. The product of a lifetime of obsessively reading, eating, and every combination therein, The Upstairs Delicatessen: On Eating, Reading, Reading About Eating, and Eating While Reading is a charming, emotional memoir that only Garner could write. In it, he records the voices of great writers and the stories from his life that fill his mind as he moves through the sections of the day and of this book: breakfast, lunch, shopping, the occasional nap, drinking, and dinner.

Through his lifelong infatuation with these twin joys, we meet the man behind the pages and the plates, and a portrait of Garner, eager and insatiable, emerges. He writes with tenderness and humor about his mayonnaise-laden childhood in West Virginia and Naples, Florida (and his father's famous peanut butter and pickle sandwich), his mind-opening marriage to a chef from a foodie family, and the words and dishes closest to his heart. This is a book to be savored, though it may just whet your appetite for more.

©2023 Dwight Garner (P)2023 Tantor

What listeners say about The Upstairs Delicatessen

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    4
  • 4 Stars
    2
  • 3 Stars
    3
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    2
  • 4 Stars
    3
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    1
Story
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1
  • 4 Stars
    2
  • 3 Stars
    2
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Lovely story marred by terrible narration

This is a great memoir by a wonderful writer and reviewer. I had to stop because the narrator was so bad. Really a shame.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

A river of a book

This book flows over you and through you. You can't engage with it. You will remember almost none of it ( but what you do will be vivid). But you will enjoy being in it, letting it delightfully wash over you. If you're confused, don't worry about it. If you're bored, wait five minutes. It just keeps flowing and, like a river, seems reliably predictable but perennialy fresh. I loved it. And the narrator, by the way, is perfect.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

eating new york

liked it. Honest and fun read. one doesn't need my words. read the book, not my review.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

This is a weird book full of weird sex references.

I listened to an interview about this book and it sounded amazing. So I decided to listen to it. It ended up being full of weird examples of food being likened to sex or sex being likened to food. The writer shares a lot of his love of food in New York City instead of exploring food culture at large. I’m sure someone will love this book. I was not that person.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful