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Corked
Meet Kathryn Borel, bon vivant and undutiful daughter. Now meet her father, Philippe, former chef, eccentric genius, and wine aficionado extraordinaire. Kathryn is like her father in every way but she's totally ignorant when it comes to wine. And although Philippe has devoted untold parenting hours to delivering impassioned oenological orations, she has managed to remain unenlightened. But after an accident and a death, Kathryn realizes that by shutting herself off to her father's greatest passion, she will never really know him. Accordingly, she proposes a drunken father-daughter road trip. Corked is the uncensored account of their tour through the great wine regions of France. Uproarious, poignant, painfully introspective, and filled with cunning little details about wine, this is a book for any reader who has sought a connection with a complex family member or wanted to overcome the paralyzing terror of being faced with a restaurant wine list.
272 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 97 reviews
December 4, 2013
This is a memoir by Kathryn Borel and in it she relates how she and her father embark on a wine trip across France and she attempts to face some of her demons. I say attempts, because she does not seem to succeed.
There are quite a few problems with this book. First, the book reads like an SAT words overloaded essay. The author has quite the penchant for the literary mechanisms and she fails to implement them well. The analogies are over the top and out of place. The book could have enjoyed better editing to refine her style of writing. The overuse of analogies, metaphors, similes and hyperboles become one of this memoir's downfall. Frankly, it was over the top. She should have toned it down a bit, especially the overused adjectives for she "made a sauce with assiduous attention," and then "Dense fatigue cloaked my face like a goose-down comforter." Now imagine the entire book like the aforementioned sentences.
Second, the characters are unlikable. Although I appreciate the honesty, Ms. Borel's personality comes through quite clearly through the narrative and I did not find her likable. She came across as a selfish, egotistical, megalomaniac, needy, intolerant, desperate child with daddy issues. She also exhibited prepotency and a lousy character. Frankly, by the end of the book I was desperate for it to end, for I did not care one bit what happened in the book, nor to its characters. And that is the biggest downfall of the book.
There are quite a few problems with this book. First, the book reads like an SAT words overloaded essay. The author has quite the penchant for the literary mechanisms and she fails to implement them well. The analogies are over the top and out of place. The book could have enjoyed better editing to refine her style of writing. The overuse of analogies, metaphors, similes and hyperboles become one of this memoir's downfall. Frankly, it was over the top. She should have toned it down a bit, especially the overused adjectives for she "made a sauce with assiduous attention," and then "Dense fatigue cloaked my face like a goose-down comforter." Now imagine the entire book like the aforementioned sentences.
Second, the characters are unlikable. Although I appreciate the honesty, Ms. Borel's personality comes through quite clearly through the narrative and I did not find her likable. She came across as a selfish, egotistical, megalomaniac, needy, intolerant, desperate child with daddy issues. She also exhibited prepotency and a lousy character. Frankly, by the end of the book I was desperate for it to end, for I did not care one bit what happened in the book, nor to its characters. And that is the biggest downfall of the book.
July 29, 2013
The concept of this book was so appealing, but the execution was terrible. It's a memoir about a father and daughter taking a tour of French wineries in order to reconnect. Road trip through France tasting wine? I'm there. But oh, no... not good.
I felt the father and daughter's relationship was just so poorly conveyed. The whole time they bickered, but honestly I could not tell if it was real bickering or tongue-in-cheek bickering where they were really just amused with each other. If you can't convey the basic tone of the main relationship of a book, fiction or otherwise, to me it is a failure. Or maybe it was just me failing as a reader--I don't know. All I know is, I could not get a sense for how they really got along.
Also: their quirkiness was intensely annoying. Both the father and daughter just made such strange comments and jokes throughout the book that I just didn't grok. I think they are both just incredibly goofy and off-the-wall in a way that I don't find funny.
The daughter was also ridiculously needy which annoyed me as well. She broke up with her last boyfriend, yet kept harrassing him with text messages because she was lonely and clearly having second thoughts. Run away, former boyfriend--run far away!!
I felt the father and daughter's relationship was just so poorly conveyed. The whole time they bickered, but honestly I could not tell if it was real bickering or tongue-in-cheek bickering where they were really just amused with each other. If you can't convey the basic tone of the main relationship of a book, fiction or otherwise, to me it is a failure. Or maybe it was just me failing as a reader--I don't know. All I know is, I could not get a sense for how they really got along.
Also: their quirkiness was intensely annoying. Both the father and daughter just made such strange comments and jokes throughout the book that I just didn't grok. I think they are both just incredibly goofy and off-the-wall in a way that I don't find funny.
The daughter was also ridiculously needy which annoyed me as well. She broke up with her last boyfriend, yet kept harrassing him with text messages because she was lonely and clearly having second thoughts. Run away, former boyfriend--run far away!!
April 24, 2014
A self-indulgent piece of junk. Borel airs her issues with her father and her inability to make connections with men while recounting a frankly boring wine-tasting trip in France with her father. I resent even the small amount of time I wasted on this book. Avoid at all costs.
January 23, 2019
I really wanted to like this: a daughter traveling with her Dad who loves wine and tries to imbue this love onto her. Sounded like my Dad. But unfortunately, this "memoir" fell short in many ways, the biggest being the writing itself. Quite dull and pedantic all the way through. 1.5 stars
April 24, 2010
This is a funny memoir about a father daughter tour through Europe's wine country. I found it to be vvery witty and I laughed out loud several times.
September 21, 2010
A lot of the time, I find memoirs self-indulgent. This was one of those memoirs. I am impatient to a fault, especially with the self-created or self-propagated problems of others. Especially others who are nothing but characters in books (at least to me).
Kathryn Borel is a decent writer. A few of her experiences with wine and men (though not with death or fathers) mirror my own. To some extent, I can relate. Her problems with wine and men, however, are much exacerbated by her own lack of confidence.
There seems to be nothing inside this woman. Sure, to read her words, she is overflowing with emotion. Even these emotions, though, are nothing but expectations and illusions created by TV shows. She has no worth and no personality outside of the affirmations she gets from others, whom she draws to her by her constant, needy, unrelenting desperation.
Despite the ostensibly happy ending, one ends this book with a feeling of continuing depression, and worse, caviling annoyance with life, and the sense that, for Kathryn, nothing has really changed.
Kathryn Borel is a decent writer. A few of her experiences with wine and men (though not with death or fathers) mirror my own. To some extent, I can relate. Her problems with wine and men, however, are much exacerbated by her own lack of confidence.
There seems to be nothing inside this woman. Sure, to read her words, she is overflowing with emotion. Even these emotions, though, are nothing but expectations and illusions created by TV shows. She has no worth and no personality outside of the affirmations she gets from others, whom she draws to her by her constant, needy, unrelenting desperation.
Despite the ostensibly happy ending, one ends this book with a feeling of continuing depression, and worse, caviling annoyance with life, and the sense that, for Kathryn, nothing has really changed.
August 29, 2013
I actually couldn't finish reading this. It wasn't so much about the wine as about the author's personal issues. I tried several times to finish it, but I completely lost interest. Good thing I had only paid $1 for this book at the Dollar Store.
April 15, 2010
Hated the characters - didn't finish reading it.
October 11, 2010
A pretentious "memoir" from an even more pretentious author. Don't waste your time.
November 8, 2012
Don't bother with this drivel - the title says it all. Unsympathetic characters (a father-daughter team) who are far too privileged and boring.
January 21, 2015
Love memoirs, love travel, love wine, love road-trips, what's not to like? This book.
February 28, 2010
I love to drink wine, but I must admit I don't know much about it, and I always stick to the one or two brands that I do know I like. One of the reasons that I chose to read and review this book is because I remember growing up in California until I was nine, with two parents who cruised around the California Wine Country for countless days and hours during my childhood. For a long time I completely resented wine enthusiasts, hated them because I my memories were of being stuffed into the back of the car with no AC, fighting with my sister and going on a ridiculous amount of tours. Now that I have grown up I can appreciate it a little more and have grown to love wine even taking my dad on a mini tour while living in NY a few years ago. Boy how times change. I enjoyed to the book imensely as I could relate to Kathryn and her father's relationship as it is similar to my own misadventures with my dad.
February 17, 2010
Corked is the true story of 26-year-old Kathryn Borel's wine-tasting trip through France with her father. Mr. Borel was born in France and is a great lover of wine with an extensive wine cellar. This trip is Ms. Borel's attempt to get to know her father and develop a deeper understanding of his passion for wine. Kathryn hopes to strenghten her bond with her French-born wine aficionado father. The results will make you laugh out loud.
The book also deals with some serious issues Kathryn has to deal with, like forgiving herself for accidentally killing an old man, and getting over her last broken relationship with an ex-boyfriend.
I liked Ms. Borel's story. Her analogies for the wines she was tasting were
perfect. The writing is contemporary and fun and a book I highly recommend not only for the lessons in wine/tasting/history but also for the lessons in love.
The book also deals with some serious issues Kathryn has to deal with, like forgiving herself for accidentally killing an old man, and getting over her last broken relationship with an ex-boyfriend.
I liked Ms. Borel's story. Her analogies for the wines she was tasting were
perfect. The writing is contemporary and fun and a book I highly recommend not only for the lessons in wine/tasting/history but also for the lessons in love.
March 16, 2010
At first I thought this would be a run of the mill memoir about a father and daughter taking the trip of a lifetime, but it quickly became much more than that. Borel's honesty about what has happened in her life, from an accident where she kills a pedestrian, her break up with her boyfriend and the relationship she really doesn't have with her father all come together and make for a satisfying read. There is some harshness in the story and I thought it all came together when she confronts her father and in the end both are stronger for it.
February 9, 2019
One of the worst books I've read in a while....I found it incredibly obnoxious. The author seemed to think that physically fighting with her elderly dad was funny and made light of killing someone with her car (literally, there are jokes about this). It was juvenile and frustrated me as a reader (and a human) to no end. Ugh.
January 18, 2012
Terrible.
April 10, 2021
I loved this book. Written in a literary style, it details a dysfunctional father-daughter trip through France while encompassing all the angst of a young woman in crisis, a blind or ambivalent parent, and all of the unhealthy coping skills they've developed to deal with their lives and each other. It's not meant to be a feel good book, but a snap shot of one person's spiral while they struggle to deal with one tragedy while imagining every other tragedy that could possibly happen in the future. We get a window into a family's private language, all the little inappropriate quirks, sayings, and banter that aren't for public consumption. While the reader, being on the outside looking in, can laugh at the absurdity of most of it, anyone who has experienced trauma will also recognize Kathryn's horror at being on the inside of her own actions. This book is so much more than a travel a book, a book about wine, a book about a family trip. It's an exploration of recognizing your own crazy and trying to put a leash on it.
February 24, 2021
This is your archetypical fame whore, she tried to falsely accuse someone in Canada of sexual harassment, and then when proven a liar she somehow finagled a visa to work in the United States as an editor of the New York Times
She is part of the femi-Nazi meetoo Movement where everything is trumps fault, but they love to saddle up to Harvey Weinstein and be his best friend, history will prove what a loser the social climber is and her literature why waste your time reading it, she probably had someone on fiverr write it for her
She is part of the femi-Nazi meetoo Movement where everything is trumps fault, but they love to saddle up to Harvey Weinstein and be his best friend, history will prove what a loser the social climber is and her literature why waste your time reading it, she probably had someone on fiverr write it for her
June 10, 2021
This book was a very interesting read. Borel has a cryptic and dark sense of humor that is also very “cork”-y *wink* and relatable. Having lost my father 2 years ago, this book really hit home when it comes to contemplating life and death. This book brings to light the importance of getting to know your family and sharing life experiences to better understand why people are the way that they are. I really enjoyed this book and was left wanting more.
April 12, 2019
I was hoping for something along the lines of "Sideways", "Travels with Charley" and/or "Travels with Barley", but instead, I got an all-too-often TMI account of a petulant 26 y/o daughter on an excruciating road trip with her bizarre father. Whoever recommended this to me should be shot 🔫!
October 14, 2020
I found this book to be rather depressing. A story of a woman who has constantly been trying to impress her father and gain his praise. She wants to make memories and connections with him but it doesn’t seem like she ever feels good enough or feels as though she makes him proud.
September 6, 2017
This is a quick read and a good romp, at times. It flags in places and at the end, but I enjoyed the journey nonetheless.
July 25, 2020
Sweet and funny
August 1, 2020
Egads! Does the author have any idea how horrible she makes herself sound?
August 7, 2022
Well that was interesting....lots more than just having wine tastings in France!
March 20, 2023
I loved the idea of the father/daughter wine trip but this was lacking in all other areas.
January 21, 2024
I quit reading after the author spoke unfeelingly about hitting an 83 yo man with her car and killing him. She blamed the "stupid jaywalking old man and his breakfast groceries" for ruining her life.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 10, 2013
Philippe and Kathryn Borel are a father and daughter on a wine tasting tour of France, a trip proposed by Kathryn when she realized that she barely knew her dad. He had raised her trying to teach her everything he knew about wine, a subject in which she took no interest until she came to see that if she wanted to really know her father she should try to understand what he had spent his life doing.
I started the book with the expectation that it would be a quaint story in the same vein as Peter Mayles' Provence books. I was spectacularly wrong; it is anything but quaint. For one thing there's a lot of swearing and for another France and wine serve more as the backdrop to the working out of the father/daughter relationship.
Having said that, there is a great deal to learn about wine from this book. The descriptions of different wine regions, growing conditions, varieties of grapes and different methods of making and bottling wine are well explained and make for interesting reading. Surely it is everyone's dream to take a trip like that - two weeks driving through the French countryside tasting great wine at old family owned vineyards. It sounds close to perfect to me.
But that isn't the real story here. The real story is how Kathryn and her father connect, butt heads and finally get to a place of honest emotion and acceptance of one another. And that's emotion with a capital E. It gets raw and leaves you feeling like you've been through the wringer, but it's worth it. Knowing it's true and about real people gives you hope that just maybe the rest of us can work out our less-than-functional relationships too.
It took a few chapters to get into because at first it seemed too centered on Kathryn's feelings. In fact both she and her father were so self-centered that I almost gave up on it. The angst and self-analyzing got monotonous and Philippe was just plain obnoxious most of the time. But about half way through Kathryn got to me and I started to care. From that point on I couldn't put it down. She's an interesting writer, very articulate. She uses metaphors - a lot of them - that no one else would ever think of. Her writing is fresh and original and easy to read.
I think this book is worth reading. The gut wrenching honesty and lack of ego needed to put this story out there in public are admirable. She has things she can teach us. As mentioned earlier, there is a lot of "language" so if that's a deal breaker for you, you may want to give this one a pass. If you can get past that, it's worth it.
In spite of the more or less happy ending, I found the last few lines of the story sad. Kathryn and her father joke that something they have in common is how much God hates them both. I know it's meant to be funny, but they've fought their way through such hard situations and come out stronger and closer to each other, and I feel so bad for them that they don't see their worth in God's eyes, how much He cares about them. To end it like that - this story that tells so well how the love between father and child survives the hard times and becomes a healing force in both lives - leaves me wanting more for both father and daughter.
I started the book with the expectation that it would be a quaint story in the same vein as Peter Mayles' Provence books. I was spectacularly wrong; it is anything but quaint. For one thing there's a lot of swearing and for another France and wine serve more as the backdrop to the working out of the father/daughter relationship.
Having said that, there is a great deal to learn about wine from this book. The descriptions of different wine regions, growing conditions, varieties of grapes and different methods of making and bottling wine are well explained and make for interesting reading. Surely it is everyone's dream to take a trip like that - two weeks driving through the French countryside tasting great wine at old family owned vineyards. It sounds close to perfect to me.
But that isn't the real story here. The real story is how Kathryn and her father connect, butt heads and finally get to a place of honest emotion and acceptance of one another. And that's emotion with a capital E. It gets raw and leaves you feeling like you've been through the wringer, but it's worth it. Knowing it's true and about real people gives you hope that just maybe the rest of us can work out our less-than-functional relationships too.
It took a few chapters to get into because at first it seemed too centered on Kathryn's feelings. In fact both she and her father were so self-centered that I almost gave up on it. The angst and self-analyzing got monotonous and Philippe was just plain obnoxious most of the time. But about half way through Kathryn got to me and I started to care. From that point on I couldn't put it down. She's an interesting writer, very articulate. She uses metaphors - a lot of them - that no one else would ever think of. Her writing is fresh and original and easy to read.
I think this book is worth reading. The gut wrenching honesty and lack of ego needed to put this story out there in public are admirable. She has things she can teach us. As mentioned earlier, there is a lot of "language" so if that's a deal breaker for you, you may want to give this one a pass. If you can get past that, it's worth it.
In spite of the more or less happy ending, I found the last few lines of the story sad. Kathryn and her father joke that something they have in common is how much God hates them both. I know it's meant to be funny, but they've fought their way through such hard situations and come out stronger and closer to each other, and I feel so bad for them that they don't see their worth in God's eyes, how much He cares about them. To end it like that - this story that tells so well how the love between father and child survives the hard times and becomes a healing force in both lives - leaves me wanting more for both father and daughter.
January 7, 2017
A father/daughter road trip through the vineyards of France. They both carry a lot of baggage, of the emotional kind. Predictably, they come to know and accept each other in the end; the trip has its desired effect as they are able to put aside some old differences and hurtful habits and learn to truly communicate. The trip is not without its pitfalls, blind turns and hazards. They literally, and figuratively, spend much of the time l0st.
The father is an aged Frenchman, who escaped the Nazis and ended up in Montreal, where he worked his way up from dishwasher to wine steward in a fine hotel. The daughter is a bit adrift, breaking off a long-term relationship after cheating on her lover, but not fully committed to the breakup. She hopes that she can learn enough about wine on the trip to gain some respect from her dour and difficult father.
After hundreds of kilometers, wrong turns, bad restaurants and aggressive bouts of silence, they are ready to kill each other before she finally breaks through his barriers and makes herself heard. He shares his life story in ways he clearly never has before. The trip end with a better understanding and new found respect and empathy.
The book avoids being cloying through self-deprecating humor. There's an ongoing introspection - a sort of "look how F**ked up we are". Even before their emotional break-through there's a comic give-and-take between the two - a playful roast with loving insults.
While I found Kathryn's "poor me" moments annoying (you cheated on the guy and dumped him, you don't get sympathy for that), I appreciate the author's emotional honesty. Overall, this book is a trip worth taking.
The father is an aged Frenchman, who escaped the Nazis and ended up in Montreal, where he worked his way up from dishwasher to wine steward in a fine hotel. The daughter is a bit adrift, breaking off a long-term relationship after cheating on her lover, but not fully committed to the breakup. She hopes that she can learn enough about wine on the trip to gain some respect from her dour and difficult father.
After hundreds of kilometers, wrong turns, bad restaurants and aggressive bouts of silence, they are ready to kill each other before she finally breaks through his barriers and makes herself heard. He shares his life story in ways he clearly never has before. The trip end with a better understanding and new found respect and empathy.
The book avoids being cloying through self-deprecating humor. There's an ongoing introspection - a sort of "look how F**ked up we are". Even before their emotional break-through there's a comic give-and-take between the two - a playful roast with loving insults.
While I found Kathryn's "poor me" moments annoying (you cheated on the guy and dumped him, you don't get sympathy for that), I appreciate the author's emotional honesty. Overall, this book is a trip worth taking.
August 18, 2010
When I found this book I had several reasons that made me excited about reading it. First, I was excited about reading a book about a father and daughter and I was very excited to follow their journey on a wine trip. The book starts off in the middle of the wine trip but I didn’t get interested in the book until the fourth chapter but that interest was lost soon after. There was another point in the book that caught my interest again but it was lost again and it was at this point that I was so far into the book I had to finish reading it, but I found me forcing myself to finish the book.
The wine trip was the daughter’s idea and she wanted to take the trip with her father because she knew that he loved red wine and she wanted to use the wine to become closer to her father. Her father, who is elderly, seems like a father that only lets his daughter know him from the outside but doesn’t let her in too far. It also seems that he only gets to know the outside of her as well. Tootsie, as she is known in the book, the daughter, is very rude to her father after he doesn’t open up the way she wants him to. At this point she considers running him over with the car and considers crashing their car into a tree. As I skimmed through the last chapters there relationship did open up more and they have some bonding time.
The wine trip was the daughter’s idea and she wanted to take the trip with her father because she knew that he loved red wine and she wanted to use the wine to become closer to her father. Her father, who is elderly, seems like a father that only lets his daughter know him from the outside but doesn’t let her in too far. It also seems that he only gets to know the outside of her as well. Tootsie, as she is known in the book, the daughter, is very rude to her father after he doesn’t open up the way she wants him to. At this point she considers running him over with the car and considers crashing their car into a tree. As I skimmed through the last chapters there relationship did open up more and they have some bonding time.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 97 reviews