What do You think about Comfort Me With Apples: More Adventures At The Table (2002)?
I certainly know who Ruth Reichl is; she's a culinary powerhouse who headed the editorial desk - for years - at one of my favorite magazines in the world, Gourmet. I did not, however, read her first memoir Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at the Table. Though this book picks up where that one leaves off, I'm told, I don't think you need to read that before this. It stands alone.Let me set the scene. Ruth is just launching into her life as a restaurant critic, living in a commune of sorts on Channing Way in Berkeley and married to an artist who travels a lot. I'll admit - I almost put this book down several times in the beginning. I found her infidelities (Yes, plural. Sorry for the spoiler!) off-putting. At what felt like an avoidable demise of a marriage, I kept reminding myself Stop judging! It was challenging, but by the end of the book, I was crying with her at the loss of her Gavi (sorry, another spoiler). I was on her side. I was rooting for her. And I certainly will pick up other titles by her.While I found myself wishing for a little bit more restraint as she described her personal life, I longed for her descriptions about the food to go on and on. "We began with a deep green vegetable purée sprinkled with herbs. ...Afterward we had raspberry ice cream that was the color of a Renaissance sunset. I held it in my mouth, loath to let the flavor vanish. Just churned, it did not taste as if it had been made by human hands. The cream seemed straight from nature, from happy cows who had spent their lives lapping up berries and sugar."
—Camilla
I liked the real foodie parts of this book, but it pretty quickly devolved into the sort of memoir where I felt somewhat aghast for Ruth’s friends, family, former and current spouses, and lovers. Yikes!TMI!It would have comforted me if she had stuck an apple in her mouth rather than telling me quite so much about her infidelities.[SPOILERS….]I don’t know why this is so…she just seemed so stupidly self-destructive at some points and yet constantly fell forward into better and better jobs. I really was not happy to find out at the end of the book that she was going to achieve her goal of having a child
—Sundry
Comfort Me With Apples is a memoirs interspersed with recipe and critic of food and cuisine. It is written with in informal voice, much like how a friend would relay to you her stories and emotions.I like how Ruth Reichl wrote about commune living and transitioning from a commune house chef to a food critic. I admire her story on finding herself while doing her work. Though I am saddened at her separation with her first husband, I felt happy that she eventually got a second love and a biological child.Though R. Reichl admitted that she writes with exaggeration, I am not sure which parts of the book are exaggerated or just the exciting parts of her life. I am thinking that she included only in her narration those parts which are exciting and those which she can exaggerate.In our life though, there are events which people think that we exaggerated, but at that moment, that is how we perceived it. I guess, there were times in her life that she perceived ordinary things and events as exciting and that is an admirable thing for me.At the end of this book, I realized I cook too lazily and too simply.Why this book: wanting to read a light book to get over the previous book I've read. It serves its purpose and I want to spend the weekend cooking/baking.Time spent: Four days and read during long commute and before bedKnow the author before this book: NoWill read other books from this author: YesRate: I rated this 4 in Goodreads
—Faye
