Monday, February 27, 2017

Blue Plate Special

Blue Plate Special: An Autobiography of my Appetites by Kate Christensen.     368 pages.


Reading this book was an interesting experience. Admittedly, I picked up the book thinking it was going to be a chef's autobiography (and didn't read the inside flap) and then it turns out that Kate Christensen is an author.  So, it took until about halfway through the book for the light to click on for me.  However, I still enjoyed reading the book, even though I wasn't familiar with the author at all.

So now, after reading what I just wrote, it becomes very obvious that I picked this book up without looking up anything about it --- because per Goodreads:
"That the greatly admired novelist Kate Christensen has turned to the memoir form after six novels makes this book an event. Readers of memoirs of high literary quality, particularly those with food themes—most conspicuously Ruth Reichl's Comfort Me with Apples and Gabrielle Hamilton's Blood, Bones, and Butter—as well as admirers of M. F. K. Fisher and Laurie Colwin will be a large and eager audience."

Well, apparently I need to become more aware of novelists, because I didn't know who Kate Christensen is.  The funny thing is, I have read all of Ruth Reichl's books, have read Gabrielle Hamilton's books, and everything by Laurie Colwin.

I did find this to be an interesting book, maybe for the main reason that I didn't know anything about the author.  Reading the book was a complete introduction to her, and her life has definitely been interesting so far.  I am intrigued enough to pick up one of her novels now, and realize that this is an exercise that is usually reversed (usually, you read a novel, and then might read the author's autobiography).


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