Elza's Kitchen Quotes

“Since she was ten, the most powerfully loaded word in Dora's house, in her vocabulary, had been opportunity. And from what little she knew or cared about history, it seemed to her that until 1989 the word, the concept, had not existed. Life before the change was all about cigarettes and salted bread rolls for breakfast, maybe a cup of cocoa in a milk house on the way to work or school. It was a dun-colored existence. If a person was ambitious, he or she joined the Party to get ahead, but most people kept their mouths shut and their heads down. They pursued hobbies like photography or tennis; or maybe they climbed mountains or kept a garden and traded whatever extra they had for something they didn't have; or maybe, if they were overly ambitious, they carried whatever extras they could round up to the co-op or the weekly market, and they sold it for a bit of change.”
― Marc Fitten, Elza's Kitchen

“Why can't it just always be like this? she thought. Why, so often, did it seem that she had to muddle from cause to effect, from half-baked decision to tentative action, with no recipe or anything else to guide her? Just muddling. Throwing things into a pot and hoping they'll get along.”
― Marc Fitten, Elza's Kitchen

“Elza had noticed early on, ten years ago, that once released from the clutches of socialism, the masses instantly began twirling like dervishes and shouting with pleasure or for attention, as if they were children let out to recess after years of mental cruelty at the hands of a bitter schoolmarm and her dilapidated classroom.”
― Marc Fitten, Elza's Kitchen

“Elza needed challenges in her life, needed to be occupied. Without walls to climb or windmills to attack she was the type of person who became depressed. She knew this. The feeling lived inside her somewhere - probably nestled close to her solar plexus. Yes, it seemed like that was the case. She felt it right in her chest. So, to escape dwelling on her anxieties - which she was prone to do - Elza lived in a state of perpetual movement. If she slowed down or was obstructed, even for a moment, she would suffer being left alone with herself, and then all would be lost.”
― Marc Fitten, Elza's Kitchen