MUCH DEPENDS ON DINNER: THE EXTRAORDINARY HISTORY AND MYTHOLOGY, ALLURE AND OBSESSIONS, PERILS AND TABOOS, OF AN ORDINARY MEAL. Visser, Margaret. Toronto, McClelland and Stewart, c1986. 350pp, cloth, $22.95, ISBN 0-7710-8749-7.CIP Adult Reviewed by Sharon A. McLennan McCue Volume 15 Number 2 1987 March Anyone who listens to CBC's "Morningside" will be familiar with Margaret Visser's witty, rambling discussions of everyday things. Happily, she has put these informative commentaries into a book that does for food what she did previously for beds and baths. In Much Depends on Dinner, Visser analyzes an everyday meal of corn with butter and salt, a lettuce salad dressed with olive oil and lemon juice, chicken with rice, and ice cream. Each of the components of the meal is discussed from every conceivable viewpoint, from the technology involved in its production to the myths that accompany it. from its history to the cultural meanings it has been given by the people who consume it. Using corn, for example, she writes about its origins and how it was spread around the globe by the Spanish conquerors who received the seed from native North Americans. We find out how corn flakes were invented and thus, how a technological change caused a change in the breakfast-eating habits of an entire continent. The chemicals and insecticides that are used to keep corn flakes on the breakfast tables of North America concern her also, so that she questions how much longer we can continue to batter the environment before we pay the price for such interference. Corn must be cultivated to survive. She discusses this simple fact which, when coupled with a scientific community that fails to account for all the implications of the technology it creates, could change the course of history. This fascinating book is a well-written, erudite account of commonplace foods. It is as informative as a doctoral thesis, yet as compelling as a spy novel. Much Depends on Dinner is highly recommended for all adult collections. Sharon A. McLennan McCue, Cree School Board, Chisasibi, James Bay, Que.