Greene, Gael 1937-

PERSONAL:

Born 1937, in Detroit, MI; daughter of Nathaniel Robert and Saralee Greene; divorced, 1974. Education: University of Michigan, B.A., 1956.

ADDRESSES:

Agent—Jane Dystel, Dystel and Goderich Literary Management, One Union Square West, Ste. 904, New York, NY 10003.

CAREER:

Writer, journalist, and restaurant critic. United Press International (UPI), Detroit, MI, reporter, 1956-57; New York Post, New York, NY, reporter, 1957-61; freelance writer, 1961—. Also cofounder and chairperson of the charity Citymeals-on-Wheels, New York, NY.

AWARDS, HONORS:

New York Newspaper Women's Award, best feature writing, 1958; Mademoiselle Merit Award, young woman of the year in journalism, 1959.

WRITINGS:

Don't Come Back Without It, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1960.

Sex and the College Girl, Delacorte (New York, NY), 1964.

Bite: A New York Restaurant Strategy, Norton (New York, NY), 1972.

Blue Skies, No Candy, Morrow (New York, NY), 1976.

Doctor Love, St. Martin's/Marek (New York, NY), 1982.

Delicious Sex, Prentice Hall (Englewood Cliffs, NJ), 1986.

Insatiable: Tales from a Life of Delicious Excess (memoir), Warner Books (New York, NY), 2006.

Contributor to magazines, including McCall's, Cosmopolitan, Saturday Evening Post, Ladies' Home Journal, and Mademoiselle. Contributing editor (restaurant critic), New York, 1968—.

SIDELIGHTS:

"Though I would hope one day to be best known for my fiction and someday to write novels good readers will love, I am probably more likely to be recognized now as a restaurant critic," Gael Greene once told CA. "I came to the food world as an amateur, in the best sense of that word—a lover of fine dining. And I've attempted to explain my love and perhaps infect my readers with a similar passion."

Many food experts believe she has succeeded very well. Since Greene became the "Insatiable Critic" for New York magazine in 1968, her reviews have become what Chicago Tribune reporter Rogers Worthington called "the industry standard for sensuous, brilliant and bitchy food writing." As Ellen Torgerson Shaw observed in an article for the Los Angeles Times Book Review: "No one can better activate the passive palate, preaching on any cuisine that arouses her soul. No one can better apostrophize an exquisite souffle. For Greene, nirvana must be opening her mouth and putting a laden fork into it."

Greene has often referred to the erotic aspects of preparing and eating food. Reviewers were not surprised, then, when she parlayed her talent for writing sensual description into explicitly sexual novels. According to Worthington, the "locus of [Greene's] public image took a sudden turn from the palate to the groin" with the publication of her bestselling novel Blue Skies, No Candy. William Cole wrote in the Saturday Review that "this frequently funny, sometimes outrageous book runs the sexual gamut from A to Z, with special emphasis on X—and that doesn't mean ‘kiss.’"

In a letter to CA, Greene added that "there were some readers who found the intimacy of this writing threatening. I believe especially some male readers were uncomfortable. And it was easier to say, ‘this is vulgar’ or ‘this is pornography’ or ‘this is silly fantasy’ than to say, ‘this scares me.’ Other men and many women wrote to thank me for mirroring their own feelings … for helping, in some cases, to free them … or for expanding their understanding of one another."

Blue Skies, No Candy focuses on Kate Alexander, a chic and successful script writer whose extramarital flings provide material for the pervading sexual activity in the book's plot. Written much in the same style as her provocative restaurant reviews, the novel, according to Mary Pradt Ziegler in a Library Journal review, is "erotic, cinematic, and bluntly honest." Ziegler added: "It's viscerally enjoyable and credible."

Greene's next novel, Doctor Love, is told from a male point of view. The protagonist is Barney Kincaid, a middle-aged Jewish M.D. obsessed with sex and mortality. Kincaid sets out to rediscover his youth by having affairs with the women from his past. Doctor Love explores the mysteries of the male libido, as well as the "psyche of a noncommittal male lothario" as represented by Barney Kincaid, commented Worthington.

Greene went from writing novels about sex to offering advice for women on how to spice up their sex lives in her book Delicious Sex. Ralph Novak, writing in People, noted that the author "obviously is not overzealous when it comes to setting limits."

Approximately two decades after Delicious Sex appeared on bookshelves, Greene produced her next book, a memoir titled Insatiable: Tales from a Life of Delicious Excess. Published in 2006, the memoir recounts Greene's life from her youth in the Midwest to her rise as a noted food critic in New York. The author writes about her numerous love affairs with the rich and famous, including Elvis Presley, Burt Reynolds, and Clint Eastwood. She also highlights her ongoing career as a food critic by recounting the many sumptuous meals she has eaten. In addition, Greene includes recipes in between chapters. "Lively and large-spirited, her account sizzles," wrote a Kirkus Reviews contributor. Another reviewer, writing in California Bookwatch, commented: "It's her diverse experiences which set Insatiable apart." William Grimes, writing in the New York Times, remarked: "Insatiable serves as a reminder of how fresh and clever Ms. Greene can be." New York Times Book Review contributor Liesl Schillinger called the memoir "frank and funny," adding: "Greene's book is a gustatory napkin-ripper that charts the rise of epicurean tastes, trendy restaurants and celebrity chefs, using the frequent crescendos of her own pulse as counterpoint."

In her letter to CA, Greene concluded: "It took Americans a decade to get comfortable with their passion for food. I expect one day they'll come to love erotic writing as well. And I'll keep trying to do it better. Till then, there's no way I would ever give up the food world. I wake every day full of hope that I will discover some great new restaurant or a glorious new dish or even an enchanting new flavor. I have dedicated myself to the wanton indulgence of my senses. And I shall consider it fitting and divine if on my deathbed my last words echo those of Pierette, the sister of Brillat-Savarin, who died at table shortly before her one-hundredth birthday: ‘Bring on the dessert. I think I'm about to die.’"

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Charney, Maurice, Sexual Fiction, Methuen, 1981.

Contemporary Literary Criticism, Volume 8, Thomson Gale, 1978.

Greene, Gael, Insatiable: Tales from a Life of Delicious Excess, Warner Books, 2006.

PERIODICALS

Booklist, April 15, 2006, Mark Knoblauch, review of Insatiable, p. 16.

California Bookwatch, August, 2006, review of Insatiable.

Chicago Tribune, October 12, 1982, Rogers Worthington, review of Dr. Love.

Crain's New York Business, December 15, 2003, James Brady, "Gael Greene Is a Glory of NY, both the Magazine and City," p. 9.

Entertainment Weekly, April 7, 2006, Jennifer Reese, review of Insatiable, p. 64.

Kirkus Reviews, March 15, 2006, review of Insatiable, p. 274.

Library Journal, December 1, 1976, Mary Pradt Ziegler, review of Blue Skies, No Candy, p. 2510; April 15, 2006, Christine Holmes, review of Insatiable, p. 101.

Los Angeles Times Book Review, July 4, 1982, Ellen Torgerson Shaw, review of Doctor Love, p. 4.

Ms., October, 1976, Sheila Weller, review of Blue Skies, No Candy, p. 42.

Newsweek, October 18, 1976, review of Blue Skies, No Candy, p. 105; April 3, 2006, Raina Kelley, review of Insatiable, p. 65.

New York Times, October 11, 1976, Anatole Broyard, review of Blue Skies, No Candy, p. 25; May 12, 2006, William Grimes, "Adventure Cooking and Xtreme Eating," includes review of Insatiable, p. E27.

New York Times Book Review, October 10, 1976, Donald E. Westlake, review of Blue Skies, No Candy, p. 20; July 11, 1982, Anatole Broyard, review of Dr. Love, p. 14; May 28, 2006, Liesl Schillinger, review of Insatiable, p. 11.

People, October 27, 1986, Ralph Novak, review of Delicious Sex, p. 21.

Philadelphia Inquirer (via Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service), January 30, 2006, review of Insatiable.

Publishers Weekly, February 9, 2004, John F. Baker, "Insatiable Critic Tells All," p. 14; March 13, 2006, review of Insatiable, p. 55.

Saturday Review, October 2, 1976, William Cole, review of Blue Skies, No Candy, p. 36.

Time International (Europe edition), December 4, 2006, Don Morrison, review of Insatiable, p. 52.