... With Kitchen Privileges

by Louise Andrews Kent

The novel is set in the Boston area in the early 1950s. After she suffers a heart attack, Mrs. Appleyard, an elderly New England widow, is persuaded to rent out part of her historic house to young married couples as a way of not being all alone. This brings her into contact with a whole new slice of society, that of young Harvard researchers and their working wives. Some of them are delightful, and others shock her by their ill manners, poor childrearing methods and appalling culinary habits. Apart from her renters, she takes a keen interest in the private lives of her Mayflower descendant neighbors. Why is selfish old Mrs. Clinton so taken with the strange astronomy professor who believes Martians are living among us? When will her nurse, Jane, be cured from the malaria she contracted as a prisoner of war during WWII? Will anyone ever notice that Harriet Ballard is not just a fine cook, but also a lovely girl? In the end, all is resolved in the most satisfactory fashion : troublesome people depart, well-matched couples are formed, and no less than 3 babies are born. The Appendix to the book contains quaintly old-fashioned recipes for the dishes that are mentioned in the book.

239 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1953

About the author

Louise Andrews Kent (May 25, 1886 – August 6, 1969) was an American writer. She was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, in 1886 and graduated, in 1909, from Simmons College School of Library Science, where she was president of her senior class and editor of the college paper.

She became a newspaper columnist and writer of children's literature, and also of cookbooks. She wrote a newspaper column, Theresa’s Tea Table, in the Boston Traveller under the pen name of Theresa Tempest, and later authored a series of cookbooks as Mrs. Appleyard.

Reviews

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

This appears to be the last book in the Mrs. Appleyard series. WWII is over, and the USA are hopeful about space and concerned about Korea. Mrs. Appleyard, matriarch of the Appleyard clan of Boston and Maine, is now a 60-year old widow. After a year spent visiting her progeny, scattered across the USA, she returns to her Massachusetts home in Woodbrook Green. But a heart attack fells her in the middle of a snowstorm. During her recovery, well-intentioned friends impress upon her that she cannot remain all alone in her big historical house, the most beautiful home in a neighborhood full of houses where George Washington once slept, or at least hoisted a tankard of beer. Her solution is to rent space in her house "with kitchen privileges" to young couples who might help her out with domestic help in exchange for a place to live. The first couple that appears are Tom and Allison Carroll, young academics working at Harvard. They are delightful people and Mrs. Appleyard is happy to get to know a whole new set of people, the scientists and technocrats of post-war America. Still, she doesn't neglect her neighbors, all members of respected families who've lived in Massachusetts for generations. Her next-door neighbor, old Mrs. Clinton, is a selfish old dragon who runs her malaria-prone nurse, Jane, ragged, and controls her middle-aged son Dr. Prescott Clinton. Mrs. Teasedale is the prototypical pragmatic New Englander. Mrs. Craske and Miss Clara are slightly eccentric, but kind-hearted. Mrs. Appleyard observes all the daily doings with great interest. Why is Mrs. Clinton so tolerant towards the strange astronomy professor who believes Martians have infiltrated the human race? What exactly is Prescott Clinton's research? Why does the FBI agent who came to interview Harriet Ballard, the lovely local pastry expert, with regards to an acquaintance's job in the State Department, keep coming back? The peace of this contemplative existence is disturbed when the Snapes take up residence in Mrs. Appleyard's house. The culture clash between the brash, gem-chewing Texans and their Yankee landlady is violent, and the fridge becomes their battlefield.

In the end, all ends well. Several matches are made, and several babies are born. The nasty Snapes decamp for sunnier clime and Mrs. Appleyard finds peace again. At the end of the book, an appendix lists recipes for dishes that are mentioned in the book, such as Harriet Ballard's almond rings and Eunice Snape's parsnip fritters.

One of the fun things about this book was that it gave such a matter-of-fact view of the preoccupations and lives of Americans in the early 1950s. There is much talk about a young woman going to law school and then taking a job in the State Department. It is considered completely normal that an FBI agent comes around to sniff out any potential Communist sympathies. Jane, a former Army nurse, tries to re-enlist and go to Korea once her malaria is cured- unless a better option is offered. Eunice Snape sings the praises of the chemical-riddled convenience foods that make us shudder now, but that were considered the height of modern technology then. The word "atomic" is attached to anything that has vaguely to do with science and technology. The astronomy professor is considered a lunatic when he mentions the idea of sending spaceships to the moon.

Through it all, Mrs. Appleyard's genuine interest in her neighbors and friends, in the nature of New England and in the joy that good food can bring, functions as a read thread that binds together half a dozen subnarratives. A very enjoyable read.

[Deb · Rating 5 out of 5]

3/2015 I'm rereading this and enjoying it so much. Mrs A is widowed, old and ill (oh no, she's exactly my age! People did get old younger then.) but enjoying mentoring all the young people back from WWII and pining for her country home. Fabulous descriptions of a world that is gone but seems so close. (Ok, yeah, it reminds me of all the stuff I have in my house, inherited from the dead and gone...)

I think Kent actually may have invented a genre that is quite popular today - that is "fiction with recipes." At the back of the book is a section of recipes for foods mentioned in the novel. I think of the "Faith Fairchild" and "Claire Cosi" mysteries among many others....

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel describes what happens when an illness convinces Mrs. Appleyard, a widow interested in cooking, books and friends, to rent some of her large house to a number of young couples, many of them new to Massachusetts. But despite some differing tastes in food, Mrs. Appleyard--Kent's alter ego--finds some common ground with almost all of them.

[Lizziebeth10 · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you've read Mrs. Appleyard and I, you must read this. None of the rest of her books are particularly exciting (IMHO, of course), but this and Mrs. Appleyard are not only goodreads, but must-reads.