Blood, Bones, and Butter

It was a little disorienting how she would jump around in time, skipping 20 years here and then dropping a scene from that skipped time into a later chapter. Plus, what kind of author/chef skips the part where they travel the world? That's one of the most fun and interesting things people do in life, and she glossed it with a list of countries she hit and a few pages talking about how depressing Europe is in the winter.

The lovelessness, the inability to talk deeply and chat lightly, the staying together for family (his family, which she adored and didn't want to lose) even after all emotion had turned to hard resentment and dislike - all of this made her marriage feel like it was straight out of the 1950s, which was deeply unsettling. Since her marriage was involved in about 50% of the book, I was unsettled for that much of the book.

So why the four stars? First, I loved the descriptions of her early family life. Second, I love the descriptions of her husband's family, food, houses, kitchens, and Sunday lunches. Third, her descriptions of catering were fun and interesting. And finally, she is just really damn interesting.

Oh yeah, and this: “People who know me well understand fully what I am saying when I suggest that I am working an appetite and that we'd best be making our move. This means it is time to hit the road before my blood sugar - what's left of it - crashes to that point where I'm going to RUIN YOUR FUCKING DAY.” Girrrrl, been there. Like every single weekend.

I thoroughly enjoyed this richly-written memoire. I happen to know the extended family and worked at the private high school she attended so I was familiar with lots of this book.

What I loved most was that I learned a lot about food, geography and Italian. I wished I had read this on an e-reader so I could instantly look up many of the words and expressions Gabrielle wrote.

Highly recommend. Just loved it.