How to Feed a Dictator by Saddam Hussein, Idi Amin, Enver Hoxha, Fidel Castro, and Pol Pot Through the Eyes of Their Cooks by Witold Szablowski

The subject matter about the personal chefs of some of the world's most evil rulers might seem taboo to many. Until about a month ago, I didn't even know that this book existed. I think it was a story on CNN that talks about the documentary movie of the same name where I learned about the book. The film was on Netflix, which of course, I don't subscribe to. But I learned in the piece that the doc was based on a book. 

Immediately I went to Amazon and placed an order. I would have finished this book a week earlier but for some reason, my first order was cancelled. I'm wondering if some other culinary teacher out there saw the news story at the same time I did and snatched the copy I ordered up before me. I hear that if a simultaneous order is made on the same item, timestamp proof gives the sale to the person who completed their order first.

It really wasn't such a big deal. I did have to pay an extra 2 bucks for my copy. But I like the faux menu cover better than the one for the used copy I first tried to obtain.

Polish writer Witold Szablowski focuses on 5 dictators: Cambodia's Pol Pot, Cuba's Fidel Castro, Iraq's Saddam Hussein, Albania's Enver Hoxha and Idi Amin, the President of Uganda and the Last King of Scotland apparently. Despite being a history major in college, I had never heard of Hoxha and though I knew a tiny bit about the Killing Fields of Cambodia, Pol Pot could have very easily been a foreign made cooking vessel for all I knew. 

None of these 5 men are going to win congeniality awards. Though if you had to force me to pick a dictator who had the best intentions based on the chefs who describe them, I would probably say that Castro is portrayed as the most sympathetic figure. Pol Pot was the most difficult to understand. Why would you want your people to be free and yet you kill millions of them? I think Idi Amin's former chef knows a lot more than he let on. Amin is rumored to have dined on the liver and flesh of his political adversaries. Hussein had a temper and could easily turn on you if you pissed him off. But he loved loyalty and would lavish his riches on those he trusted most. Plus, I do agree that his sons were both 10 times more vicious and bloodthirsty than he was. And when it comes to Enver Hoxha, a hero of his native land when it comes to his fight against the Nazis, I have 2 very distinct opinions. 1) he became corrupted by being thrust into his post-World War II leadership role and 2) based on talk about a head injury sometime in the 50s or 60s, I think Hoxha suffered from the later CTE effects of post-concussion syndrome. Perhaps had he not been injured, he might not have been so ruthless. 

You might think that the 6 total chefs interviewed by the author deserves zero sympathy or care for the mere fact that they feed some of the 20th century's most diabolical leaders. But you got to realize that these chefs were literally cooking not just for their lives but for the lives of their spouses, children and family members. Did some of them financially benefit? No doubt. But there were times where they were a hair breath away from being executed because they over-salted the soup or burnt the bread. As to paraphrase one of the chef's: your role in an authoritarian government goes out of play when your very survival is on the line. And from what I gathered, only Castro's 2 surviving cooks and Pol Pot's chef choose their professions. The other 3 literally had no say in the matter or it was too late to back out once their clients were revealed to them 

This is a compelling book. I'm not sure why the story Pol Pot's chef is broken into 4 chunks in between chapters before she's given a chapter of her own. It really disrupts the flow of the narratives. Also, there's not really any standardized recipes in the book. A lot of them cooked based on the personal preference or whims of their employers. Though I would be interested in trying the ceviche techniques discussed that were a favorite of Castro's. The steak dish made of grapefruit, during a time of severe Cuban beef shortages also look interesting. But the goat pilaf recipe that Saddam Hussein loved so well, forget it! Once you've kissed a goat and her babies, you can never eat of their relatives ever again. I might have a morbid curiosity about the dining habits of dictators. But I'm not a monster.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

The Marked Halloween Special

Every once and a while, the guys at my favorite comic shop order things that they aren't sure whether I would like them or not. They try to get up with me on my special orders but with my work schedule, I'm not able to get there every week. The guys know not to order me anything overtly demonic and for the most part, their executive decisions have been pleasant surprises. I wish I could say the same for this book...

The Marked is a title from Image Comics. Debuting in 2019, It's about a group of women with these tattoos that are magically imbued. The world has been rendered safe from demons for the most part by the Marked. But every once in a while, something managed to sneak through to our dimension. 

In this Halloween special, the Marked are preparing for a challenge by one of their former brethren, a witch named Rogue who rebelled against Catholic church's role in the Spanish Inquisition. As a result of a curse, every 100 years, this excommunicated witch unleashes her own special demons on Earth. The Marked are given until midnight of that centennial contest to find the portal unleashing the fiends and close it, or the devils will reign for another century. 

This year, Rogue's demons have taken root in a small town in Texas on All Hallow's Eve. Only Halloween has been banned thanks to a fire and brimstone preacher and the extreme right wing Sheriff department that rules the burgh with an iron fist. Last century, Rogue almost won. With the Marked having to fight a town full of bigots and homophobes, along with Rogue's army of darkness, this Halloween could be the earth's last and longest Devil's Night for 100 years.

This special started out okay. It straddled this side of Mike Mignola's Hellboy which is about as extreme of a story involving the devil that I am comfortable with. In fact, I thought I was reading a sorceress version of the X-Men. With a villain known as Rogue, a coven made of a diverse international membership and a rough-around-the-edges warlock who befriends a wet-behind-the-ears young enchantress, it really is the X-Men for witches. In fact that warlock and the youngster actually make a joke about how characters named Rogue are supposed to be mutants. 

When the witches make it to Texas, they encounter children who are actually demons under enchantment. The spirits were scary looking but things were fairly balanced between good and evil. So, I read on. But when we get to the reason why Rogue chose this town for her judgment, we learn that- big surprise- the police force was behind a number of heinous sins. They're all dragged off to Hell. Then the fallen angels come for the pastor. He didn't kill anyone but his version of God's love is warped. Yet as the guy begs for his life, the Marked condemns the man to the lake of fire because in their minds, he's cancellable. It's here that I decided that I couldn't make this book a keeper.

The Sheriff and his deputies being villains wasn't so much of a controversial thing. There's countless works in which Southern lawmen are bad guys. But there's also quite a bunch in which they are knights in shining armor. But why is every pastor not of the Catholic church deemed a charlatan, a misogynist and further right-winged than Trump and DeSantis combined? 

I'm a Christian. I'm not perfect. I make mistakes. So do the pastors of the churches I have attended. Yes, some preachers are pure evil. Jim Jones and David Koresh are two prime examples. Instead of dooming the town's pastor, who clearly was not following Christ's example, why couldn't writer David Hine have allowed the guy to repent? Are readers supposed to believe witches and demons exist but redemption, that's a foreign concept? It was that stereotypical look at the church that put me off of this franchise and decided that this book will not be a permanent part of my Halloween collection.

And for any comic book writers who may ever read this review, I challenge you to craft a story in which Christian leaders are looked at as the flawed people that they are but seeking to do right and pursue righteous above their sinful ways. Hating the sin but not the sinner is possible. It's a concept that might seem like fiction, but it's really not. I just wish my beliefs were also represented in comics.

Not Worth Consuming!

Rating: 3 out of 10 stars.

Red Skull- Incarnate

   

 Examining the origin of Johann Schmidt: the Red Skull. Being a huge Captain Captain America fan, when I came across this, I had to own it. I can't stand the Red Skull... don't get my wrong he's the perfect foil to the Sentinel of Liberty but I hate the Red Skull and everything he stands for. Still, I had to read it!

     From the economic crisis of World War I Germany up through the rise of the Nazi party and the beginning's of the Holocaust all the way to Hitler wrangling total control of Germany, Schmidt is there somewhere on the edge of history. He's just bidding his time until he can become a major power player in Nazi Germany and nobody will get in the way on his path to glory. Not friends, allies, and especially not those who wrong him.

     With riots, brutal beatings, racism, and terror, this scariest thing about this collected miniseries from 2012 is how much it reminds me of our world today. 

      I had a little bit of trouble with how innocent Schmidt becomes. But now that I've had some time to process this story, I think writer Greg Pak (World War Hulk) did the right thing not making the pre-Red Skull lad entirely evil. Having someone who at first had good intentions turn his back on his beliefs basically signifies that Schmidt sold his soul for power. Another grim aspect of this powerful book that resonates through the headlines of today just as much as it did 70 years ago.

     With an afterword that documents the historical events that pepper this miniseries, this is something that as dark and gritty as it is, should not be missed.
     
    Worth Consuming

     Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.