American Cookery: A Novel

By Laura Kalpakian

Book Overview

American Cookery bursts with the joy of cooking and the spice of life-a feast of friendship and family. High-spirited Eden Douglass is born into a contentious California clan full of headstrong women who vie for her loyalty. The Douglass women are known to borrow trouble as well as time and money. As a child, Eden's hungers are satisfied with merely having enough to eat. As an adult, her appetite for adventure leads her to serve on the European Front, to elope to Mexico with a charismatic film maker, and become a producer in the golden age of television. Eden's life is seasoned with a rich cast of lively characters. All have stories. Some have legends. Each chapter is followed by a recipe. Readers can share and savor Emotional Cornbread, Book Club Gingerbread, Parti-Colored Salsa, Figs Napoleon, Stella's Sauce and Ginny Doyle's Cowgirl Chili. American Cookery celebrates those women and men whose cooking forges connection across time and miles and through generations. Animated as a family reunion, intimate as a lover's picnic, American Cookery is a novel to relish and share, satisfying stories in many flavors, and one woman's journey through tumultuous times. Praise for American Cookery "A prize-winning Seattle writer cooks up a tasty feast of a tenth novel. this fine fictional tale is complemented by tempting recipes." - Seattle Post-Intelligencer "Food provides the structure on which Kalpakian builds this novel of a twentieth-century woman's life. a satisfying read." - Booklist Praise for Kalpakian "Kalpakian is generous, gritty, sexy, full of lyrical musings, and funny as all get-out." - The New Yorker "Whatever happened to old-fashioned stories, with fleshed-out characters, well-crafted plots, strong themes, and palpable atmosphere? Laura Kalpakian, for one, is still writing them." - Wall Street Journal "Kalpakian creates inspiring, thought-provoking, even bewitching characters." - Baltimore Sun Laura Kalpakian has received a grant from the National Endowment of the Arts, a Pushcart Prize, the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award, and the PEN/West Award for Best Short Fiction. American Cookery is her tenth novel.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312348142
• ISBN13: 9780312348144
• Release Date: November 2007
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
• Length: 432 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 1.0" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

Another beautiful tapestry from a master weaver.

American Cookery has everything. Laura Kalpakian's usual artistry with her characters, a magical story that compel and is never quiet. Eden Douglas is a wonderfully complex young woman, and she takes you from her more than unusually dysfunctional (pathetic and hilarious) family in Idaho, which even as a child she held together, and off to find her own future in the big city, and further to find love and excitement as a WAC in WWII European theatre. Kalpakian enthralls the reader with her artistry, whether she is describing a silent film screen star, the passionate meeting of two young Americans in Europe amid the war, or a Beautiful Ham. Kalpakian can make one laugh out loud, bring tears to one's eyes, and lick one's lips. And yes, with this enchanting novel, you also get recipes--good ones. This is a great idea for gift-giving. I have given it to a friend who devoured it in one week-end, and an elderly aunt, who couldn't put it down, to my 23-year-old dubious daughter, who also loved it. Great Christmas gift. PS. For more wonderful reading from LK, buy "Educating Waverly," "Caveat" or "These Latter Days" This is one fantastic writer!! I put her right up there with BKingsolver and Pat Conroy for superb storytelling, unforgettable characters.

American Cookery: A Novel

Laura Kalpakian is a master of character development. It was a joy to look into the history and personalities of more of the Douglas women, flaws and all. Eden Douglas marches into literature like the Mormon stock she comes from. If you like life stories (not quite a saga), Kalpakian delivers. St. Elmo and Greenwater become real places because of her descriptive ability. The dialog is set up so well that you may feel like an eavesdropper. I'm sure Eden did more during the war than just fall in love so I look forward to more about that time in her life. Kalpakian's sense of history would do it justice. Why did I give it only four stars? Gripping plots are not one of Kalpakian's strengths but because her characters become so believable and she tucks in so much knowledge (old movies, old music, recipes, religion, history, [I could go on]that plot takes a backseat to the every-day joys and sorrows.