Annie's review

Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at the Table
by Ruth Reichl

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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53645.Tender_at_the_Bone_Growing_Up_at_the_Table?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at the Table" border="0" src="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170428156m/53645.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53645.Tender_at_the_Bone_Growing_Up_at_the_Table?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at the Table</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5662.Ruth_Reichl">Ruth Reichl</a> 
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/9576595?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a>
 rating: 4 of 5 stars Wow. Did I seriously read this book in four days? I totally didn't mean to, but looky-there; I am already done!
 
 This one is not quite as good as <a href="/search/search?q=+Garlic+and+Sapphires&t=title"> Garlic and Sapphires</a>, but let's be fair: what is? I especially like the early stuff; the magic sort of wears off when she meets Doug. Still, I love Reichl's personal history playing off of the middle of the 20th century in middle-class America.
 
 It was so weird reading about Berkeley in the 70s, being here (Oakland, actually) in the aftermath thereof. It is interesting, because this is probably part of my objection to the book; she just barely transcends the sort of superficial description of the decades. Like, her writing and her characterization is good enough to get past it, but she totally skirts the stereotypes about NYC in the 1950s and 60s and Berkeley in the 1970s. 
 
 I guess I like the book the best when we get into the strange and anachronistic. I esp. like the early characterizations of the parents, Aunt Birdie, and Serafina. I think that when we get to Doug, Reichl starts to pull her punches somewhat. [My girlfriend, not reading over my shoulder, interjects that "it is almost as if she doesn't really want to look at her relationship with her husband." *discussion over whether Reichl was married to "Doug" when the book was written, and what her husband's name in [book: Garlic and Sapphires] was*]
 
 Okay. To summarize: her descriptions of food and cooking and eating are luscious and vivid; her characters are at their most interesting when she can't make sense of them, i.e., when she is still a child; her adventures are delightful; she is at her best with the food and the distant past.
 
 I would read anything she wrote. And will! What is next? Ah, yes: <a href="/search/search?q=+Comfort+Me+with+Apples&t=title"> Comfort Me with Apples</a>!
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/281854?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>

Annie's review
rating:

recommended for: gourmands, children of the mentally-ill
status: Read in November, 2007

Wow. Did I seriously read this book in four days? I totally didn't mean to, but looky-there; I am already done!

This one is not quite as good as Garlic and Sapphires, but let's be fair: what is? I especially like the early stuff; the magic sort of wears off when she meets Doug. Still, I love Reichl's personal history playing off of the middle of the 20th century in middle-class America.

It was so weird reading about Berkeley in the 70s, being here (Oakland, actually) in the aftermath thereof. It is interesting, because this is probably part of my objection to the book; she just barely transcends the sort of superficial description of the decades. Like, her writing and her characterization is good enough to get past it, but she totally skirts the stereotypes about NYC in the 1950s and 60s and Berkeley in the 1970s.

I guess I like the book the best when we get into the strange and anachronistic. I esp. lik...more

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