I had seen the cover of History of a Pleasure Seeker by Richard Mason, everywhere. Or so it felt. Maybe it was more of when a person is hungry, everyone else in the cartoon is a hot dog. Or a chicken leg. Or in my case, a beer and potato chips.
To me, a title that denotes any sort of hedonistic pleasure seeking would require a brew of the same ilk. I nearly picked up something from Amsterdam, where the story takes place. However, my local store had only the majors...Amstel Light and Heineken, something that I am trying to avoid when choosing. Not to say that it won't happen from time to time but why go there straight away?
I chose a pale ale by Rogue, aptly named Oregasmic Ale (it is made with 100% Oregon ingredients, right down to the Free Range Coastal Water. I wonder if Kurt Cobain ever peed in that water.)
The book: Piet Barol is piss poor and lives with his distant father who is not entirely well. For God's sake he has to dwell in Mother Nature in order to take care of bodily functions. The story hovers somewhere in the early 1900's. Piet has been taught the ways of the rich through his now deceased mother, who was the mutual light of both he and his father's lives. He applies for a job working for an incredibly rich family and secures it with a subtle but bold maneuver of holding a specific gaze with the lady of the house.
As it turns out, her rich, self-made husband has made a deal with God and does not touch his wife, ever after their last child was born. They do have two daughters and a son, Egbert, who has what would now be known as a psychotic case of OCD and will not leave the house. Piet is hired to tutor Egbert and to try and get him outside of the house. Eventually Piet is doing non mutual favors for the wife while guarding against being caught naked or with a tent pole in front of another male worker who desperately tries to catch him, and another male Help, in compromising positions.
Love is love is love in this book but mostly it is the seeking of momentary pleasure until the end, where things wrap up and a couple of happy endings are created.
It was interesting for the most part...there were times I found that I was unwilling to put it down and there were moments that I felt it was an assignment.
The Beer: The first sip reminded me of an Autumn brew, with an amber color to match. The after taste struck me as extremely bitter. I'm no pro and I don't like bitter, so perhaps this beer will work well for someone else. Probably many someone else's. The website says to pair it with seafood and hot & spicy foods. I'm vegetarian and I enjoy pungent over spicy. I might just be being a baby but I could taste that bitterness over a full minute later after sipping. This could pair up well with a few bitter moments in the book. But in all honesty, I dumped it down the drain. And felt immensely guilty that I couldn't enjoy it. So I found solace in my house bourbon, Makers. Which incidentally, did go well with the book. Indulgent and striving for higher pleasures.
