I read Kitchen Confidential so long ago that I don't remember much about it anymore, other than my impression that Anthony Bourdain was more of an artist on TV than in writing. But I'm glad I gave his books another chance, because I read two in 2018 and LOVED them. Maybe he got better, or maybe I just got older and better able to appreciate his perspective. For someone who at first glance seems like he could be an opinionated asshole, he's actually quick to own up to his own faults and prejudices and I find his complete honesty so incredibly refreshing. He's also hilarious. On the flip side, there was a chapter focused on a trip to Vietnam where he runs into a Vietnamese man on the street who has been disfigured by napalm. He feels overcome with guilt and self-loathing for being American, being a happy tourist traipsing around eating noodles in a place where so many horrors took place between our cultures, etc. and spends a bunch of the time they were supposed to be filming there holed up in his bedroom hating himself. That was an interesting glimpse into the darker side of his personality and one of the anecdotes that made me think he was a person who took too much burden on himself for things that were not his fault or anything he could control. It's sad, and reveals a big heart. I think one of the things we all love about Bourdain is his respect for the average Joe and his desire to learn more about how people live in places we normally don't take time to think about, if we're even aware they exist. Us, transplanted in a foreign land. One of the highlights of the book was the chapter Highway of Death, on the insanity of driving in Vietnam, which literally made me laugh out loud the entire way through until my family inquired what the hell was wrong with me and I made them all read it. They laughed too. This book was so poignant, funny, and interesting that as soon as I finished it I immediately had to read another of his.
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