Kate's review
Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at the Table
by Ruth Reichl
Kate's review
Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at the Table by Ruth Reichl
Kate's review
rating:
bookshelves:
food,
memoirs,
own-currently
recommended for: memoir-lovers
The somewhat disorienting nature of Reichl's writing in the first two chapters (she'll be describing how things were in general, and then throw in something like, "Then I saw the goat in the fridge" as if she had been writing about a specific time all along) smoothes out neatly for the rest of this honest and interesting memoir. The stories are told in small vignettes that knit together, rather than in the structure of a novel. Reichl does a great job of showing, without telling, the significance of food culture, preparation and enjoyment in the richer story of her relationships with people she has wanted to be close to: her father, her college roommate, and various men.
One previous reviewer argues that there is no tension in the memoir, but I was frankly refreshed by Reichl's soft touch exploring her mother's bipolar disorder (which leads her to spontaneously abandon Ruth at a Canadian boarding school) and her father's inability to defend himself against her mother, or ...more
One previous reviewer argues that there is no tension in the memoir, but I was frankly refreshed by Reichl's soft touch exploring her mother's bipolar disorder (which leads her to spontaneously abandon Ruth at a Canadian boarding school) and her father's inability to defend himself against her mother, or ...more
