TALES FROM THE TUMMY TRILOGY

Cherry-picked for readability from three books--American Fried; Alice, Let's Eat; and Third Helpings--these 17 wickedly funny essays are read by the writer, a narrator who delivers straight lines so well that a stone would giggle. From dangerous bagels to double-boiled deer penis, he's searched the world for anything authentically pleasing to the palate. A New Yorker writer, who remembers Columbus chiefly as "the Genoan who taught Ferdinand and Isabella how to twirl spaghetti around their forks," Trillin takes his work seriously. In Buffalo, he tells us, chicken wings are always offered mild, medium, and hot. "I sampled mild. I sampled medium. I sampled hot. It turned out that there is no sort of chicken wing I don't like." B.H.C. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine [Published: FEB/MAR 01]