Who could resist reviewing a book with a title like this? You don’t even have to like tomatoes (full disclosure: I do!) to wonder how someone could possibly find enough momentous material about a salad-bar staple to fill 300 pages. What’s next? How Bacon Bits Helped the Allies Win D-Day?
Scoff if you must about tomatoes, but then you would be missing out on one of the most delightful history books of the season. William Alexander, who appears to be a bit of a niche writer (his previous books include The $64 Tomato: How One Man Nearly Lost His Sanity, Spent a Fortune, and Endured an Existential Crisis in the Quest for the Perfect Garden), has done for his favorite subject what Edward Gibbon did for the Roman Empire. By the time you finish his book, you’ll marvel at how much he managed to squeeze into 300 pages.
