stephan's writing style is very enjoyable, and the characters are interesting, but the story doesn't seem to me as if it's ideally paced ... like ... it's just about to hit its stride, but instead it loses momentum and then falls apart

still a worthwhile read in my opinion, just don't necessarily expect an umami ending ( )

I did not enjoy this one at all. Stopped a little over halfway through. It was a bit too much tongue-in-cheek for me and became very unrealistic. ( )

This book was all over the place, and in serious need of some tightening up of the plot. I really wanted to like this book based on the blurb, but it didn't live up to the promise of the premise.
This fictional book, themed on the new trend of bashing processed foods, while pushing a healthier diet, is supposed to be of the dark humor variety, but somehow is just misses the target and verges on the boring and dull, rather than the sharp and witty.

It has its moments but these come mostly at the beginning and the end, making me wonder if this would have been better as a short story.
( )

Sweetness #9 by Stephan Eirik Clark is a highly recommended fictional novel that is ostensibly about a flavorist, but in reality begs us to question the true safety of the processed and chemically altered foods we eat.

Sweetness #9 begins in 1973 when David Leveraux accepts a job at a major company which is conducting animal testing on its soon to be released product: an artificial sweetner called Sweetness #9. David is excited about his beginning career, knowing that, hopefully, he will soon advance out of animal testing and move into breakfast cereals. But a kink happens when David notices the results of the consumption of Sweetness #9 on his rats... and a co-worker's primates. It seems that the artificial sweetner is causing a lot of harm for something that is going to be released on the market soon. When David tries to bring his concerns to the boss-men on the fifth floor, he's fired.

After struggling for a while, David is eventually offered another flavorist job at a different company. His life continues on, he has a family, and the story jumps into the nineties.

Clark does an excellent job raising questions about the safety of the manufacture products full of chemical additives we ingest on a regular basis, along with all the dyes, preservatives, etc. Written as a novel, it is at the heart of the matter, a social satire. All of the characters are likely showing signs of being poisoned by Sweetness #9 (or other additives). The prevalence of additives in almost everything we eat and drink (unless you are consuming all whole foods and organic) will certainly touch a nerve with most readers.

Alternately, since this is fiction, you will also wonder how many and exactly what facts have been exaggerated to make a point. He also keeps it humorous, even when tackling a serious question, which makes the novel a pleasure to read.

I found it rather amusing when Clark asked the question "Were we really a country that couldn't even cut its own cantaloupe anymore?" Okay, some people can't or won't take the time to cut their own fruit, but someone is cutting up the produce for them. (And some unnamed reviewer might just have a part time job doing just that, cutting up fruit and vegetables, that pays pretty good. So is it truly a sad commentary on our lives or simply consumerism at work?)

Sweetness #9 is entertaining, but not without a few problems. I guess my main problem was with the end when the plot seems to jump off onto a new tangent and toward a conspiracy theory. My qualms with the novel were nicely offset and balanced with Clark's superior writing ability and sense of the absurd in the juxtaposition of some of the facts and characters.

Disclosure: My Kindle edition was courtesy of Little, Brown and Company via Netgalley for review purposes.

( )

Sweetness #9 is a sugar substitute under development when David Leveraux is assigned to monitor the test rats. Sweetness #9 is poised to sweep the world - all the sweetness, none of the calories! Not only will food be transformed, the labs at Goldstein, Olivetti and Dark stand to garner every industry award and of course untold sums of money. So when Leveraux spots disturbing behavior changes in one of the test rats, his results are covered up and he's quickly removed from the company.

Years later, a successful flavor chemist with a happy family and a job he loves at FlavAmerica, the Sweetness #9 won't go away. It has become a part of every food he sees. His wife consumes it daily. While Leveraux makes his living from producing ever more artificial foods for the masses, he can't help but notice the same behavior changes in his wife that disturbed him during the lab tests. Thus begins a downward spiral both mental and economic, running afoul of his industry darlings and driving himself mad with guilt.

The story is a satire, right on point with the concerns of the day regarding additives and "fake" processed food. It will certainly make you think twice about what you eat! But despite the relevance of the theme, I found the book hard to read and harder to enjoy. David Leveraux is simply, to me, an unpleasant character. While I think the story is designed for the reader to feel sympathy and support for him, I found him oddly repulsive in his fussiness and neurotic behaviors.

I received a free copy of this book in return for my honest review, and there it is. The topic had great promise, but the book fell flat to me. ( )