I can't imagine doing the research for this tome. And I don't use the word tome lightly. This book is chock full of little tidbits of trivia that are fascinating, but that you will probabaly never need nor have an opportunity to share. What is the origin of the word, 'menu?' How did the fork evolve; how did table cloths come into use? "The ritual of Dinner" digs down to the tiniest of details, the most remote possible history and the widest variety of customs. If you expect such questions when you appear on Jeopardy, or when quizzed by your mother-in-law to be, this book is thorough and very well written. My, is it thorough!

But, is this the information that you seek? I was looking for a book that went into more detail than Amy Vanderbilt in the proper placement and use of dishes, utensils and glassware. I wanted to know the difference between a 'rim soup' bowl and a 'cream soup' bowl, and which spoon goes with which dish as well as which type of soup. Although some of this book was fascinating reading, it didn't really answer my questions. Well, maybe some of them, but you have to research and work at finding any guidelines. Visser insists that you learn the why and history of a ritual before letting you in on it's current practical use, and how it may be applied.

If you are not a museum curator and just want to set a proper table, I suggest you turn to "The Art of the Table" by Susanne Von Drachenfuls instead. And no, I'm still not sure about the soup bowls.

This is a fascinating book. Everyone who reads a bit of it wants to own it. You can learn lots of trivia and impress your friends as well as develop a whole new outlook on food, eating, dinner parties, etc.

Margaret Visser takes typical components of an American meal (corn, salt, butter, chicken, rice, lettuce, olive oil, lemon juice, ice cream), and shows the reader what they tell us about our history and culture. It is one of the effects of mass production that we have very little idea how our products are produced, and for those people who share an interest for food, why people eat what they do, and the beliefs people hold about food, this book will be fascinating. It is not just a collection of tidbits of useless trivia; there is a steady theme of the food being discussed in each chapter. At the same time, it is not just about the particular foods she chooses as her chapter titles. With Visser, you find out that not only do our behaviors of consumption have far reaching effects that are largely unnoticed by the general public, but also that the foods we eat have long, unthinkable histories that determine our attitudes towards them.

I'm the type of person who when I learn about things around me, I see them differently ever after that and they become part of me. This book told me so many things - about salt, butter, corn, etc. Example: Coca Cola was first made from the coca leaf, which contains cocaine, plus the kola nut. It was touted as an innocent "soft" drink. In 1903 the Coca Cola company (without announcement) removed all traces of cocaine. This is one of those books which increases your awareness of the world around you.

Visser begins by stating that "The extent to which we take everday objects for granted is the precise extent to which they govern and inform our lives." She then discusses the shape of chairs, the shape and configuration of forks, things we just don't think about every day. Visser constructs a menu of simple, taken-for-granted foods -- corn with salt & butter, chicken with rice, lettuce with olive oil and lemon juice, and ice cream. She the devotes a chapter to each course, providing more details about corn, salt & butter than you could ever imagine -- and it's all fascinating; corn, for example, touches just about everything we eat (except fish) -- all canned foods are bathed in liquids containing corn, nearly all paper, cardboard and plastic packaging depends on corn products, soft drinks contain corn-based coloring and high fructose corn syrup, corn touches ketchup, ice cream, pickles, instant coffee, insecticides, soap -- just about everything. Visser describes how corn plants grow, the origins of corn, how corn is eaten, the development of the original health food - corn flakes (with a fascinating discussion of Dr. John Harvey Kellogg and his efforts at the Battle Creek Sanitorium), corn farming around the world. It's not dull or laborious or academic -- it's fun, easy reading. After corn, Visser moves on to salt, then butter -- again, in delightful detail.

I'd recommend this book to anyone with a penchant for non-fiction, particularly a food lover, a history buff, or a science buff. Informative, well-researched, delightful fun.

Visser's spectacular language surpasses even her previous efforts, as she delves here into the majesty of faith and the intricate worship spaces we build. She sheds the usual anthropologist's garb of objectivity, admitting from the start that she is passionate about her subject, and the work is stronger for it.

However, I eventually got annoyed that there were no illustrations provided to help the reader along (it may be just the Canadian edition that suffers from this tragic flaw). As visual as her language is, this book proves the maxim that a picture is worth 1000 words. Those thousand words can be as beautiful as they like, but sometimes, dummies like me need a picture as well.

Reading about the spectacular details of St Agnes' church, I got more and more frustrated. Visser presents each column, each section of ceiling and floor, each mosaic tile, with such loving detail that I needed to examine them -- but lacking the plane fare to Rome, that's a nearly-impossible dream. Flipping from her descriptions of columns to the front cover hoping to catch a glimpse of them was eventually too much for me, and I returned this book to the library unfinished (this almost never happens).

A book of this quality deserves glossy, full-colour illustrations. Without the multimedia assist, you're going to find this book to be dry and tough going, even if you've enjoyed Visser's work in past. But still... I've recently discovered that Visser has her own website with many small images from the church ...

Perhaps I'll print out the pictures from the website and curl up with this book again at some point. Her language is so lovely, it may be worth another shot.

One of the more popular modern writing crazes is to take an object from everyday life and to dissect it : the materials used to make it; its history; its uses; etc.. Margaret Visser's Geometry of Love is a fairly representative example of this genre, better than some, no worse than most. In it she concentrates her attention upon the Sant'Agnese fuori le Mura Church near Rome. By the time you finish the book you know everything you could possibly want to know about this church, which most of us have never heard of and will never see, except for one thing : why are churches in general, or this one in particular, unique ?

Much of the book is interesting, some sections are even fascinating, but, perhaps because of the nature of the task she's set herself, describing the church as a physical structure, it never comes alive as a house of God. Admittedly, as a Baptist, I've always considered church buildings themselves to be secondary to the function they serve, as a gathering place for like-minded worshippers. But I found the book to be something like the parable of the three blind men describing an elephant, and Visser to have failed to make the church anything more than the sum of its parts. In his marvelous study, Mont Saint Michel and Chartres, Henry Adams observed two of the great churches of Christendom and perceived not merely their unity, but the unity of the culture that produced them. Margaret Visser looks at Saint Agnes and sees the particular features of the building. The difference in perception seems significant.

GRADE : C

The relatively simple Sant'Agnese fuori le Mura just outside the walls of Rome comes under the scrutiny of history, theology, anthropology & folklore to illuminate its physical & spiritual architecture.

Margaret Visser guides us through this organic aged basilica, from its apse to its nave, its catacombs to its campanile, she opens our eyes to its symbolism, its layers of religious expression, the Christian fascination with lambs & virgins, the meaning of martyrdom & the provenance of relics.

Effortlessly, this tranquil & earnest author moves us back through the ages to reveal, like the ancient stones she walks past, the erstwhile Roman attitudes toward our mortal remains & then through Christianity's infancy, in all its forms & purposes.

Part archaeology, part love story, part poetry & part tourist guide, The Geometry of Love is a quintessential read & I fell in love with columns all over again!

A superb example of writing about what you know - this author bequeaths us a unique & enfolding account of the why, where, who, when & what of a charming house of worship.

One cannot help but wonder why the author bothered. She borrows facts lavishly from much better sources than herself, adds nothing, wanders from subject to subject without rhyme or reason and never tells you what she intends or intended. What a monumental waste of time!

...but it is good, clean, fun urban anthropolgy. Whether she's looking at gloves or stockings or wigs or the way we eat our food, Margaret Visser's essays are always light-hearted journeys through things we'd otherwise take for granted.

Other reviewers here have said this book is useless, since the information Visser collects is available elsewhere. That may be true, but what she does is bring it all together and present it in a uniformly enjoyable fashion.

I, for one, don't want to pend years sifting through all the sociology, anthropology and history texts that Visser has, just to unearth the "trivial" tidbits she brings to light. So I'm just grateful that she does all the dirty work, and happy for books like hers that I can flip through in my spare time.

Perhaps you ought to be a Visser fan before opening thiscollection of short newspaper essays -- Much Depends on Dinner is acomplete delight. It's definitely a light read, don't take it toseriously, each essay is highly digestible and quietly thoughtful.