First published 2013
Kate Christensen opens her memoir by examining how food has always connected her to memory, sensuality, and desire. She describes herself as having spent much of her life as a hungry, lonely, wild animal seeking happiness and stability. The narrative begins with her unconventional childhood in 1960s Berkeley, where she lived under the rule of a volatile legal activist father who controlled the household through violence. Christensen chronicles her adolescent awakening and her subsequent journey into the literary world and relationships with men, both realms proving equally alluring and dangerous. Throughout these experiences, food serves as her constant companion, from Ho Hos to haute cuisine, reflecting whatever unfolds in her life at each moment. She excavates memories of love between mothers and daughters, sisters, and spouses, as well as the painful moments when these bonds shattered. Food sustains her through these emotional ruptures while fueling her determination to accept nothing less than genuine love and contentment. The memoir captures her path from innocence to wisdom, chronicling mistakes and lessons, broken and mended hearts, all filtered through her relationship with eating and cooking.
Genres: autobiography, memoir, biography-memoir, cooking, food, food-writing
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: coming-of-age, found-family, redemption
Setting: Berkeley
Period: 1960s
370 pages · Kindle Edition · Anchor
Content warnings: abuse, domestic-violence, emotional-abuse, physical-abuse