A serial killer's eulogy to butter and passion

"Cloaked in their mantle of amber butter, the grains shimmied and danced before her eyes. There was a sizzle as the chef poured on some soy sauce, and then the short, spirited tango was over." do not usually read fiction unless it concerns starships headed to deep space and devious plots to destroy the world.

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So, I struggled at first with this dark, somewhat eerie story about an alleged serial killer and her manipulation of men and women through rich food, more specifically, butter. But the more I descended into this eponymous novel, the harder it was to clamber out.

Apart from its delightful weirdness, Butter, the best-seller by the Japanese writer Asako Yuzuki, celebrates food without the restraints of health that people like me adopt. Yuzuki's story spoke to me because it came at a time when I had lifted the exile of richness from my food. I indeed have a clogged artery somewhere, but after more than a decade of discipline and good health, I have loosened border controls. I use light sprinklings of ghee on my dosa and gunpowder, and I use oil more liberally in my pastas and curries. Often, I fry my fish instead of airfrying it. But butter, somehow, seemed to be a land too far.