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The Bedroom Secrets Of The Master Chefs
by Irvine Welsh

The Bedroom Secrets Of The Master Chefs reviews


6.3

based on 16 reviews
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based on 12 votes
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The Trainspotting author returns with a novel about rival restaurant inspectors, set in Edinburgh and San Francisco.

W.W. Norton & Company, 400 pages
08/07/2006
$24.95

ISBN: 0393064530

Fiction
General Literature & Fiction

All reviews are classified as one of five grades: Outstanding (4 points), Favorable (3), Mixed (2), Unfavorable (1) and Terrible (0). To calculate the Metascore, we divide total points achieved by the total points possible (i.e., 4 x the number of reviews), with the resulting percentage (multiplied by 100) being the Metascore. Learn more...

Booklist Mark Knoblauch

Welsh has a remarkable gift for setting and for dialogue, as long as the reader can stomach ubiquitous, unrelenting repetition of vulgarities. [Jul 2006]

Entertainment Weekly Gilbert Cruz

The Bedroom Secrets of the Master Chefs is many things -- a family saga, a revenge fantasy, a Twilight Zone-esque parable, and, most importantly, a very fun read.

Kirkus Reviews

Welsh's best since his spectacular debut novel Trainspotting. [1 Jun 2006]

Library Journal

The result will arouse the adrenaline of some readers but will leave die-hard Welsh fans hungry. [1 Jun 2006, p.114]

Publishers Weekly

Welsh's expansive storytelling and archly imaginative humor now suggest a more aggro John Irving. [8 May 2006]

Village Voice Theo Schell-Lambert

The novel doesn't skirt the unlikely jam of fairy tale magic and Leith Walk argot.

Daily Telegraph Jane Shilling

Even as he build his crescendo of horror and regret, Welsh is unable to resist a series of camp nods to the gallery.

The Guardian James Lasdun

The Bedroom Secrets of the Master Chefs may not be his best novel (parts of it are not very good at all), but it shares the same roiling chorus of hard men, wee hoors, old jakeys and biddies as its predecessors, builds with the same logic of escalating perversity, and leaves one with the same reeling sensation of having got quite a bit more than one's money's worth.

The Independent Deborah Orr

The most touching and beautiful of his writings.

Sydney Morning Herald Howard Hilton

This novel is engrossing, rewarding and fun. It is shot through with sardonic wit and a wonderfully mordant sense of humour.

The Globe And Mail [Toronto] Eric McCormack

I don't want to give anything away, but their relationship (shades of Jekyll and Hyde) may seem to some readers a little farfetched, though Welsh makes a valiant effort.

The Observer Alex Clark

Much of the writing seems filled in, clunky and stilted.

Daily Telegraph James Walton

Of course, there's nothing wrong with a novel being open to several interpretations. In this case, though, they seem the result not of deft and deliberate ambiguity, but of authorial confusion.... Yet, for all its faults, The Bedroom Secrets of the Master Chefs does rattle along with impressive energy - and, as hopelessly messy novels go, has more good bits than most.

Los Angeles Times James Marcus

Alas, the author complicates things with a mess of subplots. [6 Aug 2006]

The Independent David Mattin

Time and again Welsh finds himself caught between narrative realism and the magical parable that he wants to tell.

The New York Times Book Review Robert Macfarlane

Although it fails at every imaginable level -- metaphysical, ethical, technical, thematic -- it is at the stylistic level, the level of the sentence, that Welsh’s novel is most wanting.

The average user rating for this book is 6.3 (out of 10) based on 12 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

tristan h gave it an8:
something a bit different from welsh, and handled well. His prose is more complex, but sharp as ever. Masterful use of language, bizarre plot, if a bit slow at the outset. well worth the read!!

Zoe V gave it an8:
Enjoyable but definitely not his best. He lost me with the loss of reality.

Dave G gave it a2:
Terrible. A desperately disappointing read, comfortably Welsh's worst effort since the dire "Ectasy". As usual, the victims are irredeemable saps with dreadful taste in music and boring hobbies while the "heroes" are Hibs supporters with a taste for drink violence. As always, there's Welsh's customary, gratuitous animal violence scene. If I wanted to read a poor man's "Picture of Dorian Gray", I'd ask a 6th form college lecturer for some essays. Welsh has admitted "Ectasy" was poor as he (allegedly) wrote it under the influence of cocaine. What on earth was he taking when he wrote this? Truly awful.

aislinn k gave it a9:
i thoroughly enjoyed this book, in fact i thought it was fantastic.. irvine welsh is an amazing author, but it aint my favourite, porno is much better, or glue.

Stephen D gave it an8:
Welsh writes with an appealing imagination on behalf and for the ordinary people. Being able to relate to Welsh is vital but its so easy here. Alcohol, enemies, relationship problems, entangled into the nightmarish scenarios which helps to fuel more of the above. Porno still tops the list of Welsh books, but Master chefs is showing there's plenty of diamonds in the Leith still to come.

Neil B gave it a3:
A thoroughly disappointing read. The story meanders aimlessly at points and while the characters and their psyches are explored quite well, the plot really lets it down. Actually found it quite hard to finish in the end.

RJ in Toronto gave it an8:
If you are a fan of Welsh's, as I am, you'll appreciate how the main characters were developed, as well as some recurring themes previously explored in other novels. But if you are not, you may find this offering not to be for your tastes. Mercifully, the store is full of other books for you to choose from ...

The Bedroom Secrets Of The Master Chefs by Irvine Welsh

The Bedroom Secrets Of The Master Chefs
by Irvine Welsh