Böcker av Klecko

"A Bakeable Feast" by Klecko is a memoir of 45 years as a bread baker, poet, emcee and keen observer of a host of co-workers and colleagues from across the globe. Each 'Baking Memory' is a page in length and tells the stories of individuals who have populated the bread crew over the years - the memories vary from sweet to ribald, from funny to tragic, and everything in between. There are stories of drug users, Nutcracker collectors, pastry chefs, blizzards, holidays, loneliness, chess clubs, music, movies, nuns, magic, Munchkins, shuttered bakeries and Klecko's travels to Russia. He also writes of the opportunity that put him on the map in his hometown of St. Paul - baking a loaf of bread specifically for Mikhail Gorbachev when he visited Minnesota's capital. Klecko is one-of-a-kind - a talented baker, gifted writer and compelling storyteller. In the tradition of "Kitchen Confidential" by Anthony Bourdain, "A Bakeable Feast" takes the reader beyond the quest for our daily bread and honors the people - the "tribe" - that master bread baker Klecko has met along the way.

Zelda's Bed spans 72 hours in Montgomery, Alabama. Making a pilgrimage plagued by travel delays and extreme heat, Klecko spends an August weekend at the Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald Museum to launch The Dead Fitzgeralds, the first book in his Fitzgerald trilogy. Located in Montgomery's Cloverdale neighborhood, the museum is in a home where the couple lived briefly in 1931; it now shares space with an Airbnb. For Klecko, a stranger in a strange land, being in the South is surreal and intriguing. A place where he thrives as he delivers his message about the Fitzgeralds. Once the mission is complete, he wanders to Hilltop where he does tarot readings for a line of people stretched out the door of a Montgomery nightclub into the summer heat. From there, he bides his time well into the night, a bottle of Crown Royal at his side, under a sprawling magnolia tree in the Fitzgeralds' front yard. The mystery of Zelda is revealed during a night he spends in her bedroom. And he discovers the sad charm of Zelda's love for her Montgomery hometown, and her dreams for the future, as he trudges, parched and hungover through Oakwood Cemetery on a Sunday morning.In real time, it's hard to noticeSilence without exceptionLeads up to The crescendo of a momentIn 72 hours, Klecko experiences the moments of a lifetime and the kindness of strangers in a place called Montgomery, Alabama.