New Hatcher Graduate Library exhibit: from bananas to bread

January 8, 2007
Contact:

ANN ARBOR—From novels and short stories to contemporary cookbooks from Indonesia and Thailand, the newest exhibit at the north entrance to the University of Michigan’s Harlan Hatcher Graduate Library has it all.

In keeping with the University’s theme for the semester, “Food in Global History,” the Graduate Library’s exhibition features selected works from its collections. One display case focuses on six different literary works that deal with or feature food and includes a Marcel Proust seven-volume work in French written after the author had a treat of tea and cookies.

“The tea and cookies brought back a memory that lasted for seven volumes,” said exhibit curator Judith Ahronheim.

Tea is also the main ingredient in a display featuring the tea party from “Alice in Wonderland.” A work by Virginia Woolf features beef stew and Thomas Pynchon’s novel, “Gravity’s Rainbow,” features bananas.

Yet another area in the Library’s north lobby features a display of contemporary cookbooks from some of the more exotic of the library system’s area programs and includes books from Indonesia and Thailand.

Short stories about bread by selected worldwide authors includes works by Black, Indian, Russian and Israeli writers.

The exhibit at the Hatcher Graduate Library, open Monday- Thursday 8 a.m.-midnight; Friday 8 a.m.-10 p.m.; Saturday 10 a.m.- 6 p.m. and Sunday 1 p.m.-midnight, will continue through Sept. 27.

For more information about the exhibit, contact Janis Giannini at (313) 936-3814.

University of Michigan