Sweet and Low: A Family Story

This book is large. In it, the writer, Rich Cohen, disinherited from the vast sweet n low fortune, comes to see the history of his family, and the history of our time, in the little white granules that sweeten our coffee, but leave a bitter aftertaste. It is told with panache and humor, and also with a great deal of compassion, even toward those who did his side of the family wrong. It is an American story as old as the west,... Read Full Review

Almost every decade a work is published that rivits our eyes to its pages and feeds an urge for more. Such a book is "SWEET AND LOW" by Rich Cohen. What makes it so appealing is that at its core is the nucleor Eisenstadt family. The titular head is Benjamin Eisenstadt who gave us the sugar substitute SWEET N' LOW. The real power in this matriarchy, however is his wife Betty who believed that love is a scarce commodity that... Read Full Review

What a great read! You almost can't put it down long enough to think, "What if my grandparents had a hundred million dollars and left me nothing?" But that's just as well, because by the end of the book, you know exactly how that kind of thing turns out. The fulcrum of the story--both in terms of the dynamics of the family and also as their most neatly distilled image--is Aunt Gladys, who lives reclusively in her frigid brooklyn... Read Full Review

Rich Cohen's new book "Sweet and Low" is a breezy and fun-filled romp through the broken fragments of a family that has more ditzy characters than an offbeat novel. The author states on the back cover, "to be disinherited is to be set free" and in his liberation the readers of his book have much about which to cheer. Cohen is wickedly humorous and spares no one and no detail. He gives "dysfunction" a new name. Ostensibly... Read Full Review

Normally I steer clear of non-fiction, but I couldn't help picking up this book. It is a great read. It's not just about sweet n'low, either, although you'll learn lots. It's about family, brooklyn, the mob, the yin of the sugar industry, and the yang of the diet industry. It is much, much more than a memoir; it's about America and the 20th century experience. The family story woven into this is as compelling as it is... Read Full Review