Customer Reviews

Comfort Me with Apples: More Adventures at the Table

5 star:		(39)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This is a scrumptious, engaging book that I devoured in a couple of days. It's a little like a grown-up version of Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love. In her personal memoir, Reichl (a food writer) made me understand how food plays a specific role at certain points in a woman's life - how a chocolate cake can be a declaration of love, how baking sweet potato pies can help overcome the sorrow of a broken relationship. A pleasure to read.

This book is beautifully written. The honesty with which Reichl shares the joys and pains of her early professional career, and her ongoing exploration of food and of herself, will offer comfort, hope and inspiration to any reader, regardless of their understanding or passion for food. This is a book that reaches beyond the kitchens' of "foodies" and into all of our lives to offer us an outlet to contemplate the place of confusion, pain, and longing that so often co-exist along side happiness, excitement and fulfillment. Through Reichl's writing, readers are offered an example of how to look inwards at ourselves, and outward at the world, with compassion.

Tender at the Bone was a good book. Comfort Me with Apples was not. I finished Bone wanting more, and finished Apples wishing I'd stopped after one course.

This book, which I gave one star simply for the delicious recipes it provided, was an evocative read. The smells and tastes of the various dishes prepared and consumed float off the page. This sequel to "Tender at the Bone" finds Reichl continuing to review restaurants, as well as deal with her demanding mother. She's also good at describing the characters she met while touring restaurants. However, while I admire her for her willingness to try any dish (even armadillo!), I wish less had been in about her various affairs. While I may be overly judgmental, I found her ruminations about her love life distracting and irritating. While the author is an adult, I just felt like she should have concentrated more on her professional life. When she sticks to food, Reichl is on more secure footing, I think. When she is wondering about her lovers, the book takes on a more teen magazine feel.

However, I had to hand it to her when she finally decides to stop being manipulated by her mother. That description, short as it was, was priceless. No more pussycat, for her!

Worth reading, if just barely, for the dishy (pun intended) anecdotes about Wolfgang Puck, Danny Kaye, and Other Celebrity Chefs I Have Known. Otherwise, this book reads like a soap opera. If you actually want to read about food, sample M.F.K. Fisher instead.

The witty writing drew me in immediately. I laughed aloud at her tales of work and life in Berkeley. Her description of her affairs was painfully long and made me feel embarassed for her and the people involved. It is unclear why she felt it necessary to reveal this area of her life at that level of detail. I almost stopped reading at that point. Thankfully, she moved on to new food and travel adventures. I liked the inclusion of recipes and enjoyed reading about her family life, when it did not expose her unsavory behavior. Overall this was a quick, funny read that she could have focused more succinctly.

I read Tender at the Bone, another 5* read, and this one. I have two things to say about both of these books: 1) Extremely pleasurable reading; and 2) I feel a little lost and sad when I see these books at the library or bookstore knowing that I have already read them. I hope she writes another memoir.

This followup to Reichl's first memoir, Tender At the Bone, is as lush as its predecessor, if a little sickening as a comforting marriage splinters, a self is reinvented, and a longed-for child is gained and lost.

Though she's well-known for writing about food, Ruth Reichl is just as adept at writing about the self, particularly when the self is caught in unfamiliar, transitional phases.

In the beginning of Comfort Me With Apples, Reichl finds herself embroiled in one extramarital affair after the other. The breakdown of her marriage is sketched for the reader, rather than drawn out in excruciating detail, but that sketch is evocative and, indeed, excruciating anyway. It's very clear to the reader what Reichl is giving up, and how hard it is for her to make the decision to give it up.

Also palpable, though never stated outright, is her bemusement at being swept into the L.A. food world of celebrity chefs and movie stars. Perhaps that feeling comes from having read Tender At the Bone.

The part of Comfort Me With Apples that will stay with me the longest is the part about Reichl's adopted daughter, Gavi. I can't imagine withstanding a loss like that. Indeed, I had no idea there was any such thing in Reichl's life. She tells the story of her daughter with the awe-inspiring level of self-knowledge that seems to be a characteristic of her memoirs.

Ruth Reichl knows food, but Ruth Reichl also knows herself -- every strength and weakness, every grace and meanness -- and she's not afraid to show us each aspect of her personality.

This memoir by Ruth Reichl is her second, beginning stories from her life in San Francisco where her first volume 'Tender at the Bone' left off. This volume essentially covers her journalistic career in California from the late 1970s through the early 1990s. One sure sign that this volume is a memoir and not an autobiography is that the story gives few clues about the dates on which the various episodes take place. Another sure sign that this is a memoir of her professional career is that it seems to spill a lot more ink dealing with office affairs than with her first marriage and its failure.

Make no mistake about it. The writing in this volume is as good as the narrative in the first, and probably a lot more interesting to the average adult reader.

My favorite story in this book is the episode where Ms. Reichl and a number of colleagues are treated to a cooking demonstration by Danny Kaye who had a first class kitchen in his house arranged specifically to enhance the ability of observers to see the ebullient Mr. Kaye demonstrate unvarnished culinary genius. This is the first I heard of Danny Kaye's culinary skills, but several other reporters have confirmed them since I read this story. Reichl's recipe she developed from memory even appeared in a volume of the 'Best American Recipes' series. I have been looking for more details of this aspect of Danny Kaye's talent ever since. Unfortunately his biographies have virtually nothing on the matter.

The saddest event in the book is the telling of Ms. Reichl's visit to China at the time her father was very ill. He insisted Ruth make the trip in spite of his perilous condition, and he died while she was deep in mainland China, well away from easy contact with her family.

I am quite disappointed with the fact that by some great coming together of coincidences, I acquired a copy of this book from Amazon with Ms. Reichl's autograph. When I saw this, I felt a great disappointment in owning a souvenir of an event that never happened.

Ms. Reichl's encounters with other notable American food figures include meetings with M. F. K. Fisher and James Beard. As avid a reader of culinary writing as I am, I confess I have never been charmed by Ms. Fisher's writing. It is something I must explore, but I find it odd when Reichl is compared with Fisher, yet I find Reichl's writing far more engaging. I even find Elizabeth David much more enlightening than Fisher does. Must be me. Reichl's encounter with Beard is typical of other James Beard encounters with less important women. At the time, he was an aging lion with no interest in women, so he was brusque with a young female California journalist, our Ruth.

This is a book which one is sorry to see come to an end. Since it really deals with maybe a dozen anecdotes from her life, one can hope there is much more material available for some future volume. Unfortunately, Ms. Reichl has a full time day job as Editor in Chief of 'Gourmet'. So, I guess I have to be satisfied with her monthly magazine columns and occasional restaurant reviews.

A very tasty read.

COMFORT ME WITH APPLES takes place in the 1970's and is an autobiographical story that is both candid and provocative. The author is Ruth Reichl, a chef who became a food writer for the New York Times and Gourmet magazine. She's a talented writer and has a unique style that's all her own.

Ruth Reichl's life is as much about people as it is about the foods that they shared together. Her travels around the world seeking adventure in culinary delights makes for fascinating reading. Her sensuous journey into the exotic world of food took her from China to France and from California to New York. The book is filed with anecdotes about famous chefs including a movie star who was also a terrific cook.

She was quite open about her failing marriage and her various love affairs. Although it was captivating to read about, Reichl seemed to be a woman who was, at times, emotionally out of control. While reading the book, I'd often catch myself thinking, "Oh, no, Ruth don't get mixed up with that guy."

Yes, Ruth included quite a few recipes. My favorite was the one for mushroom soup.