false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1179245915m/892885.jpg 892885 6 Patricia Volk's enchanting memoir nails both 20th-century American life and the glorious eccentricities of her relatives with the gift for vivid detail of a fiction writer. (After all, she's published one novel and two short-story collections.) "Our hallway was the color of ballpark mustard. The living room was cocoa, my mother's wall-to-wall, iceberg green," she tells us. Volk begins with her adored immediate family: charismatic father, hypercritical but loving mother ("Mom made me, and now she will make me better"), and older sister Jo Ann, best friend and occasional mortal enemy. But they're only the beginning, just as the garment-district restaurant that rules her father's life is only one of the family achievements. Great-grandfather Sussman brought pastrami to the New World. Grandfather Jake, a demolition expert, was profiled in <I>The New Yorker</I>. "Everybody did one thing better than anybody else. Aunt Gertie sang the works of Victor Herbert. Aunt Ruthie mamboed. Granny Ethel braked with such finesse it was impossible to tell the moment the car went from moving to a stop." Of course, perennially negative Aunt Lil embroidered a pillow with the motto "I've Never Forgotten a Rotten Thing Anyone Has Done to Me"--but maybe she was embittered by the fact that Uncle Al slept with her for 11 years then refused to marry her because she wasn't a virgin. (She sent out wedding invitations anyway, and he fell in line.) All these great stories are arranged along a casual chronological arc ("from Sussman Volk in 1888 to Cecil Volk in 1988"), but nothing is ever really finished. Her father closes Morgen's in Manhattan; her sister's husband opens a trendy food shop in Florida. "We're still feeding people," Volk asserts. Readers will find her prose as delicious as family housekeeper Mattie's chocolate cake. Recipes included. <I>--Wendy Smith</I> 1867563 2001 Stuffed: Adventures of a Restaurant Family total:244|5:34|4:91|3:79|2:37|1:3| 244 848 389 52 2 2 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Mon Aug 20 15:42:17 -0700 2007 Sat Dec 15 08:36:55 -0800 2007 more...]]> 3 2 false false Fri Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Thu Jul 05 09:38:46 -0700 2007 Thu Jul 05 09:38:46 -0700 2007 more...]]> 4 2 false false Sun Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sun Jul 01 14:36:24 -0700 2007 Fri Jul 13 15:09:24 -0700 2007 1 1 false false Fri Nov 07 07:16:28 -0800 2008 Fri Nov 07 07:18:40 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 1 false false Sat Dec 01 08:10:11 -0800 2007 Sat Dec 01 08:10:18 -0800 2007 more...]]> 4 1 false false Mon Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Fri Oct 05 08:37:21 -0700 2007 Mon Oct 22 13:02:55 -0700 2007 more...]]> 3 1 false false Fri Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Wed Jun 13 09:43:23 -0700 2007 Wed Jun 13 09:45:41 -0700 2007 2 0 false false Tue Dec 16 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Wed Dec 10 05:13:05 -0800 2008 Tue Dec 16 09:49:38 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 1 false false Thu Jul 12 17:41:28 -0700 2007 Fri Jul 13 07:10:55 -0700 2007 4 0 false false Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2003 Sat Jul 25 21:56:43 -0700 2009 Sat Jul 25 21:56:58 -0700 2009 and Tender at the Bone, I thought I'd continue
the food-related-memoir theme. But I'd say
this book was less about life in the kitchen
and mo...more...]]> 2 0 false false Tue Dec 23 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sat Dec 27 23:29:17 -0800 2008 Sat Dec 27 23:33:53 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Tue Feb 19 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Wed Feb 06 08:11:58 -0800 2008 Mon Feb 18 19:23:33 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri May 22 12:53:30 -0700 2009 Fri May 22 12:56:32 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Tue Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Feb 02 21:06:12 -0800 2009 Mon Feb 02 21:08:35 -0800 2009 4 0 false false Tue Jun 03 00:00:00 -0700 2003 Fri Sep 25 07:48:43 -0700 2009 Fri Sep 25 07:49:48 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Mon Nov 16 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Fri Nov 13 15:44:45 -0800 2009 Mon Nov 16 12:05:12 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Sat Aug 29 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Aug 29 09:17:26 -0700 2009 Sat Aug 29 09:18:13 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Mon Jul 06 18:06:19 -0700 2009 Mon Jul 06 18:39:51 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Wed Apr 01 18:38:06 -0700 2009 Tue Mar 17 22:05:31 -0700 2009 Wed Apr 01 18:38:06 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Tue May 20 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon May 19 11:44:54 -0700 2008 Tue May 20 05:52:25 -0700 2008 more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=892885