"Timothy Taylor writes straight, strong, unadorned prose…. He's
well in command of his material. Writes great dialogue. Early on,
he sets his scene, gives us Jeremy's background, and keeps his
story, yes, cooking. Stanley Park is alive with the places
and sights, sounds and smells, the psychic character of Vancouver.
It thrums with a powerful sense of the city, urban surfaces as well
as primal currents. Also food … Taylor is as good as the American
novelist Jim Harrison when it comes to writing about textures and
tangs, colours and sensations." - Quill & Quire
"Stanley Park is both feat and feast: a smart and
enthralling narrative that urgently binds together its twin
obsessions with place and food and culminates in a pièce de
resistance that proves a triumph both for Chef Jeremy Papier and
his creator, Timothy Taylor." - Catherine Bush
"Stanley Park grabs an audience in a way that augurs
a wide readership. [It's] like Babette's Feast or
Chocolat. They all celebrate a meal that never was, a hope
that the right meal can be turned into a Eucharist. Enjoy!" -
Vancouver Sun
"[A] vibrant debut novel…Taylor is a fine prose craftsman." - Andre
Mayer, eye, 29 Mar 2001
"Taylor's debut offers an inside look at the workings of a high-end
restaurant, a cut-throat character in the person of a coffeehouse
owner who wants to take it over and an intense sense of location,
as the title suggests." - NOW Magazine, 5 Apr 2001
"[Stanley Park] is a modern morality play with Jeremy
Papier's very soul at stake…Stanley Park is an assured
debut that stands well above many first novels. Taylor is a writer
of undeniable talent who has proven himself adept at both the long
and short form, and whose wave will no doubt reach the shores." -
Stephen Finucan, Toronto Star, 1 Apr 2001
"Delicious first novel must be savoured. [This] intelligent and
leisurely…novel serves up chi-chi restaurants, Blood and Crip sous
chefs and exotic culinary dishes, but it is also a pointed comment
on the act of creation - whether someone is working toward a
soufflé, a movie, a work of art or a romp in the sack…[O]ne thing
is clear: the talented Timothy Taylor…is very good at writing about
food, on a par with Jim Harrison or Sara Suleri…You'll never look
the same way at a weary chef or the loaded, coded words of a menu
in your hands." - Mark Anthony Jarman, Globe and Mail, 31
Mar 2001
"Vancouver breathes in Stanley Park, from its architecture
and granola culture to its status as an American TV-show haven. It
is a cosmopolitan, big city pushing to become an international,
economic hub. It is also a natural wonder, with an ocean and a
mountain range within spitting distance, a rainforest, and enough
red tendencies to elect quite a few NDP governments. Jeremy is at
once an élitist and a man of the people. Bravo to Timothy Taylor
for capturing this tension so well…This is a poweful début; expect
to hear a lot from him." - Todd Babiak, Edmonton
Journal
"Vancouver writer Timothy Taylor takes a meat cleaver to mystery
fiction by packing the novel with backroom culinary politics, a
heartwarming tale about a father-son reconciliation and some
moralizing on the outrage we should feel about the wastefulness of
bourgeois society. What it all simmers down to is a frothy
entertainment with a dash of piquancy…it is a well-calculated piece
of fiction…with just the right amount of angst and social
conscience." - Montreal Gazette
"A charming first novel…unflaggingly intelligent." -
Maclean's
"Your mouth waters as you read Timothy Taylor''s first novel. Not
since Isak Dinesen''s Babette''s Feast has so lavish a
table been set for a reader. If Margaret Atwood''s first novel
The Edible Woman put you off food, this one will put you
back on it…In Stanley Park he does for the restaurant
business what John le Carré does for spying; he makes it alluring.
And he does for food what Patrick Suskind does for perfume; he
makes it exciting…Timothy Taylor has written a novel with a plot to
return to, characters to remain with, and themes to think about.
The quest for authenticity, for instance, isn''t an easy one,
either for fictional characters or real people. His style skips
along merrily...He also casually slips in some of the most
mouth-watering recipes ever sprinkled on the pages of Canadian
fiction." - J.S. Porter, National Post