Recommend-A-Book-Wednesday: Ruth Reichl's Tender At the Bone

As a general rule I’m not a fan of books that contain recipes.  I’m just not enthusiastic enough of a cook to really appreciate the addition.  So when I’m reading a book and the story is suddenly interrupted by an author-inserted recipe for the dish being eaten/made in the previous paragraph I get irritated rather than delighted.  

However, the exception to this rule is Tender At the Bone: Growing Up At The Table by Gourmet Magazine’s editor and chief, Ruth Reichl.  This autobiography is just a beautifully written book, period.  You experience her life, her hopes, her disappointments and her challenges through her eyes, her feelings and through her palate.  The food is more than an addition to the story, it’s an insight into the very souls of each one of the people depicted in her book.  We come to understand her mother’s bipolar disorder through the manic way she approaches the preparation of a meal.   We are immediately in touch with Reichl’s need for comfort every time she goes to the butcher to make meat selections the way her grandmother’s friend selected it.  We understand the full force of Reichl’s teenage crush when she allows a cake to languish in the oven while she enjoys stolen kisses.  Food has quite literally never been this emotive before.  Too frequently authors use food exclusively as a way of expressing passion and lust.  Reichl uses food to express every emotion there is and she does so successfully.  And the thing is, even without the food her stories of growing up are incredibly compelling.  It’s impossible not to relate to her, impossible not to be fascinated by her odd upbringing, impossible not to be enchanted by the exotic locales she has lived in. Impossible not to be drawn into her introduction into the civil rights era of the late 1960s.  With or without interesting cuisine, Ruth Reichl has lived an amazing life...and the fact that it is indeed, with the cuisine makes it all the better.  

Even if you’re not a foodie, I strongly recommend you check out this book.  I’m reading it for the second time now...and this time I think I might even try some of the recipes.

Kyra Davis

Bestselling Author of:

The Sophie Katz Mystery Series 

and

So Much For My Happy Ending

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