In 1929, a newly married M.F.K. Fisher said goodbye to a milquetoast American culinary upbringing and sailed with her husband to Dijon, where she ...
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Dec 04, 2011
Jeanette
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"The baker had a fight with the chef soon after we left port, and the barber took over all the pastry making..."
Mary Frances had the perfect recipe for blending food writing and autobiography. Inimitable, and such a product of her era. Of all her books, this is the one most suitable for non-foodies. The Sensual Me might have been a better title. Food and drink (LOTS of drink) do get a lot of coverage, but that's only a slice of the book, not the whole pie. Along with the ga More...
Mary Frances had the perfect recipe for blending food writing and autobiography. Inimitable, and such a product of her era. Of all her books, this is the one most suitable for non-foodies. The Sensual Me might have been a better title. Food and drink (LOTS of drink) do get a lot of coverage, but that's only a slice of the book, not the whole pie. Along with the ga More...
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Aug 19, 2011
Sonia
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Loved this. Thanks to Connie for her Goodreads review, because I would never have picked it up otherwise. Ridiculously good writing about growing up, love, the Second World War, loss, travel, and food, etc. and nice loose approach to memoir. Agree with Connie that some of the early chapters are particularly lovely. On being alone with his daughters for a car trip without their mother, her father "saw us for the first time as two little brown humans who were fun." There's an incredibl
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Dec 06, 2010
April
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Let me begin by saying that I gained at least five pounds over the course of reading this book! I also consumed a few extra bottles of wine and the only thing missing was the extraordinary food that is not usually available on the income of college students. Although I had to settle for cheese and crackers with my wine, MFK Fisher’s collection of essay seated me next to her on this trip back in time.
Fisher’s writing style is charming and quite picturesque. She describes her surroundings More...
Fisher’s writing style is charming and quite picturesque. She describes her surroundings More...
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Jan 20, 2009
Melissa
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A treat for anyone who sees food more than something just to satiate hunger and who realizes that pivotal life experiences often occur around a shared meal, formal or not. I'll let Ms. Fisher speak for herself when she responds to the question of why she writes about food and hunger rather than wars and love: "There is a communion of more than our bodies when bread is broken and wine is drunk." Or, "I still think that one of the pleasantest of all emotions is to know that I, with
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Mar 20, 2010
Mara
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Fun reading while fasting.
So what I didn't expect is that she would be so funny, but in that way that people look at me surprised after knowing me for a while, and say, with a slight question in their voices, "You're funny?" And it's not funny for funny's sake, it's part of her enviable self-assurance and the ability to focus on a good meal when the world is going to pieces and her sureness of how things should be ("I discovered, there on the staidly luxurious Dutch li More...
So what I didn't expect is that she would be so funny, but in that way that people look at me surprised after knowing me for a while, and say, with a slight question in their voices, "You're funny?" And it's not funny for funny's sake, it's part of her enviable self-assurance and the ability to focus on a good meal when the world is going to pieces and her sureness of how things should be ("I discovered, there on the staidly luxurious Dutch li More...
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Jun 25, 2011
meeners
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there is no greater feeling of bliss than falling in love with a book two pages in. love at first read! SWOON!
edit: it is only too tempting to use food metaphors to describe this book ("to be savored like a _________," "rich and mellow as a ___________ wine") but i am trying to fight the good fight and resist the urge. this memoir was first published in 1943 and contains more than enough unsettling moments of blind privilege, but it is also a testament of clear insi More...
edit: it is only too tempting to use food metaphors to describe this book ("to be savored like a _________," "rich and mellow as a ___________ wine") but i am trying to fight the good fight and resist the urge. this memoir was first published in 1943 and contains more than enough unsettling moments of blind privilege, but it is also a testament of clear insi More...
May 09, 2011
Constance
rated it:
Wonderful book; excellent writing. Best enjoyed slowly and piece by piece (yes, like food). The beginning essays, about being young and discovering food and life and what it all means, are absolutely lovely. 4.5 stars.
Two caveats: Food seems a bit of an afterthought in some of the essays, which was disappointing for a reader (such as myself) who was promised a theme and therefore was always wanting food to take on a Romantic symbolic role and tie everything together. Also, M.F.K.’s More...
Two caveats: Food seems a bit of an afterthought in some of the essays, which was disappointing for a reader (such as myself) who was promised a theme and therefore was always wanting food to take on a Romantic symbolic role and tie everything together. Also, M.F.K.’s More...
Sep 14, 2011
Elizabeth
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I certainly understand why M.F.K. Fisher is so celebrated by food writers. I devoured this book and enjoyed every element of it. Fisher's food memories come off as both timeless as well as incredibly reflective of the time and place in which they happened. You get a brilliant sense of what it was like to be a foodie -- albeit a very privileged one -- in the early 20th Century, and how earning and obtaining such a status was wholly dependent on spending lots of time in Europe (France in particula
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Aug 19, 2010
Linda
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My first foray into food lit. Seriously - I hate reading/talking/listening about food. I just like eating food. But then this turned out to not really be a "foodie" (I also hate that word) thing, and so I was actually liking it. But then, sigh. It's really disjointed. Like, basically it seems like you're reading a bunch of blog entries. Which is great for blogs, less so for books. I wanted editorial cohesiveness so badly, and I got none, but she does have some great passages and inter
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Oct 12, 2010
Courtney
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The Gastronomical Me is easily one of the most profound books I've read. Deeply moving in its portrayal of war in the way of Atonement, but with lots and lots of joie de vivre mixed in for good measure, it's about as real as it gets. And, I should add, balanced: Fisher's book exposes both sides of humanity - the evil and the gracious - and, also in equal amounts, the blessings and curses fate doles out during one's lifetime. She doesn't mince words, doesn't protect you from life's realities, b
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Mar 02, 2008
Erin
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To create a truly excellent dish quality ingredients must be used, certainly, but more important are the skilled hand, the discerning palate, and the acquired wisdom of a good cook. M.F.K. Fisher was just such a cook, not only in her various kitchens, but as she stirred and seasoned the events in her life, and most of all perhaps when she served her literary concoctions to the widest range of guests she had ever encountered, the reading public. It is in this spirit that she wrote The Gastrono
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Feb 24, 2008
Ammie
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This is, in theory, a book about food. But a lot of it's not actually about food. There's a lot of talk about A) alcohol, B) Random events in the author's life, and C) traveling on boats. But for all that, I liked most of it fairly well. MFK Fisher wrote about food in the 30's and 40's (at least in this particular book) shamelessly. Apparently, initial readers thought her essays must have been written by a man because the style was so forthcoming. Her writing is, for me, very reminiscent o
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Jan 07, 2008
Christina
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Aug 19, 2007
Lesa
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My first MFK Fisher. I have been wanting to read her since 198something, when Julie Burchill, in one of her essays in The Face, mentioned her and how brilliant she was. Some 20-odd years later, I've finally done it. A thoughtful gift for a trip to France. To read this book, a memoir through food, much of it taking place in the Dijon region, while on holiday in France, made my summer eating all the more vivid. The highlights were on detours to Spain and Switzerland, actually. In the Extremadura
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Apr 04, 2009
Jessica
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I love to read food writing: both non-fiction and fiction. I am almost ashamed to admit that I have not read anything by M.F.K. Fisher before now. Many regard her as one of the best food writers.
Fisher's The Gastronomical Me is a collection of autobiographical essays that cover time from 1912 through 1941. In 1929 Fisher got married and sailed with her husband to France were she tasted her first real French food and started down the road to being a true foodie. Fisher talks about h More...
Fisher's The Gastronomical Me is a collection of autobiographical essays that cover time from 1912 through 1941. In 1929 Fisher got married and sailed with her husband to France were she tasted her first real French food and started down the road to being a true foodie. Fisher talks about h More...
Jan 05, 2012
Geni
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The unusual food memoir was recommended by an unknown, and when I picked it up recently, I wondered about even starting it. I am glad I did. I didn't know someone could write so well about her experiences with food and life. Her voice is remarkable and she makes her experiences amazingly interesting in a most subtle way. In addition, since author Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher was born the same year as my mother, I was interested in her essays as social history.
Aug 04, 2008
Dorothy
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Few readers have heard of M.F.K. Fisher. She’s often been relegated to the nebulous “food writing” category, stuck in some dusty corner with unworthy companions such as Jamie Oliver and Rachel Ray. It’s a crying shame, really. She has a wonderful, witty voice, and The Gastronomical Me is a prime example of her beautiful prose and her uncanny ability to convey raw human emotion in a few simple sentences. Food writing seems incidental to this book, because Fisher spoons it out in very small po
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Jul 26, 2007
Rae
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next time you sit down to eat, shut up and think about what you're doing. think about where the food comes from, and what happened in the world that made it okay for it to be prepared this way, and think about the last time you had anything on the plate, and what THAT day was like, and who was there with you, and how it affected your life, or not...
now imagine living your life that way, humming constantly with the awareness that food is not just necessity, it's history and love and More...
now imagine living your life that way, humming constantly with the awareness that food is not just necessity, it's history and love and More...
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Mar 06, 2011
Michael
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A collection of delicious essays. The stand out was the essay about the peach pie and whipped cream chilled in the stream... good god, you could literally just taste the pie. Most of the essays have Fisher's characteristic dry, biting wit, especially the ones about the characters she meets on her Atlantic crossings. The final essays read like a cross between Paul Bowels and Suddenly, Last Summer, pretty darkly strange.
Mar 11, 2010
Rebecca
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I thought I had read Fisher, in snippets and tributes, with the way that she haunts modern food writers (worse than Proust.) But this... I feel like starting over, just to keep each perfect sentence of this memoir close at hand, from the first line of strawberry jam innocence to the spiritual hunger of the last line. Just to drink in the strength of her character (probably best served with a stiff drink.)
Jun 12, 2011
Melissa
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Amazing! A beautifully written piece of nonfiction. Fisher recounts her life stories through food and cooking. Although this was written just after WW II, it's timeless and still relevant. She explores human emotions and behaviors through our basic need for sustenance and our desire for pleasure. I can't wait to devour (pardon the pun) the rest of her work!
Jun 11, 2011
Chelsea
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I read this book right on the heels of the memoirs of Pablo Neruda. It was a tough act to follow, but Fisher absolutely shattered me. She is as deft with her words as she portrays herself to be with a knife. Fischer's life flows like the background accompaniment to the meals she eats - deliberately, voluptuously.
May 02, 2009
Krista
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This series of essays was interesting, and full of rich descriptions. My complaint is in the disjointedness of the essays (I mean within a single piece, not the cohesiveness of the collection) and to be honest, most of them were quite depressing. Still, I'm hoping to read at least one more of her books.
Jan 17, 2009
Marissa
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I love MFK Fisher. I discovered her work in a "foodie" book group started by our local library a couple years ago. She writes about food and cooking and eating in such a way that makes it more than a mundane experience. Who knew there was so much to say about food?
Jan 03, 2009
Tora
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I cannot name a single person who shouldn't read this book. The short story format makes it easy to pick up, while universal yet all too human themes of love and hunger make the writing a balm for what ails you.
A few of the stories were familiar to me from another collections, but reworked in a way that gave me the feeling she was trying to distill another kind of truth by telling it in another way-- one more immediate and unflinching than a more "prosy" version of the sto More...
A few of the stories were familiar to me from another collections, but reworked in a way that gave me the feeling she was trying to distill another kind of truth by telling it in another way-- one more immediate and unflinching than a more "prosy" version of the sto More...
Dec 30, 2010
kasia
rated it:
Every bit as wonderful as I'd hoped. It kind of reminded me of Kleinzahler's Cutty, One Rock, in terms of style. But with more food. Such a beautiful book.
Blog Review
Blog Review
Mar 31, 2009
Mer
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I devoured this book like one of the many deliciously described meals in its pages. So much more than a food-related biography, "The Gastronomical Me" takes you through some of the formative moments in MFK Fisher's life and the food that accompanied them. Fisher's writing is refreshingly cool and smooth, sneaking up on you with its oh-too-true portrait of complex feelings. I enjoyed it very much.
Jul 19, 2008
Heidi
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MFK Fisher is a food-writing legend that I knew nothing about. I tried starting with one of her other books, "How to Cook a Wolf," but I just couldn't get into it. It's like I had no context to understand it. Now that I know more about her, though, I might give that one another try.
This is a quiet book, tender and little dreamy. The early chapters talk about crossing the ocean to France and Switzerland in ships, an experience so totally foreign to me. Especially since it co More...
This is a quiet book, tender and little dreamy. The early chapters talk about crossing the ocean to France and Switzerland in ships, an experience so totally foreign to me. Especially since it co More...
Jan 24, 2012
Brittany
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A classic book about gastronomy and travel. I grew weary of Fisher's style after awhile - her writing is thematically and syntactically vague, with lots of ellipses, and from a particular socioeconomic vantage point - but her prose is lovely, and it's aged well. I'm glad I read the book, but Fisher's style is frustrating enough to me that I doubt I'll read anything else by her.
