Martini Straight Up: The Classic American Cocktail (review)

A professor of classics, Edmunds returns, in this revised edition, to a stately and beloved subject, the Martini straight up, and has renamed (or rather, resubtitled) it, "The Classic American Cocktail." The counterpoint, in his table of contents, between "The Simple Messages of the Martini" (seven of them) and "The Simple Ambiguities of the Martini" (four of them) promises a classic of the driest humor. That promise is met in this potent, concise, and enlightening text. I read it, enjoyably, in a state of austere sobriety, then on completion toasted it with a vulgar version of its subject: Swedish vodka and a Martini olive, splashed with a few drops of French vermouth, on the rocks. Edmunds would not approve. But if a cocktail is to be American as well as classic, then even two olives and Italian vermouth must be tolerated without disdain.