Winter Reading Series: Keeping the Feast

Winter Reading Series book selection: Thank you Lisa from Books on the Brain for inviting me (and the MMBC readers) to read Keeping the Feast.  In addition to reading the book selection and blogging about it, we have the honor of discussing the authors story with author.  Paula Butturini will be live on Feb 22 (4PM PST) to answer our questions.  Click here to participate in the discussion.

From author's website: I was the kind of kid who read whatever I could get my hands on; my mother complained that I took too long clearing the dinner table because I was always trying to read the articles in the old newspaper onto which I was supposed to be scraping the table scraps. I read and re-read books I loved, and the ones that weren’t cookbooks had plenty of food lore tucked inside.

Synopsis: A story of food and love, injury and healing, Keeping the Feast is the triumphant memoir of one couple's nourishment and restoration in Italy after a period of tragedy, and the extraordinary sustaining powers of food, family, and friendship.

Paula and John met in Italy, fell in love, and four years later, married in Rome. But less than a month after the wedding, tragedy struck. They had transferred from their Italian paradise to Warsaw and while reporting on an uprising in Romania, John was shot and nearly killed by sniper fire. Although he recovered from his physical wounds in less than a year, the process of healing had just begun. Unable to regain his equilibrium, he sank into a deep sadness that reverberated throughout their relationship. It was the abrupt end of what they'd known together, and the beginning of a new phase of life neither had planned for. All of a sudden, Paula was forced to reexamine her marriage, her husband, and herself.

Paula began to reconsider all of her previous assumptions about healing. She discovered that sometimes patience can be a vice, anger a virtue. That sometimes it is vital to make demands of the sick, that they show signs of getting better. And she rediscovered the importance of the most fundamental of human rituals: the daily sharing of food around the family table.

A universal story of hope and healing, Keeping the Feast is an account of one couple's triumph over tragedy and illness, and a celebration of the simple rituals of life, even during the worst life crises. Beautifully written and tremendously moving, Paula's story is a testament to the extraordinary sustaining powers of food and love, and to the stubborn belief that there is always an afterward, there is always hope.

Type: Memoir, 272 pages, Hardcover

Quick Take: Keep the Feast is a well crafted memoir.  The author weaves childhood memories, her passion for food and travel into an emotional story of courage and love.  Although the subject matter is different I was often reminded of Elizabeth Gilbert's story telling (I am a huge Gilbert fan so this is a compliment).

Last week Lisa posted a few questions to think about as we prepare to discuss this memoir with the author.  Here are a few of them: 

 

Here are a few of the discussion quesitons we will be talking about today:

Were there parts of this book that were difficult to read?

John and Paula’s marriage was brand new when tragedy struck. It might have been easier to leave than stay, yet they got through it. Would you have had the strength to stay, given the circumstances?

What role does food play in your family? Do you live to eat or eat to live?

Paula had firsthand experience with depression through her relationship with her mother before it overtook her husband. Were you surprised that she handled her husband’s bouts with depression the way she did, given her history?

I'm looking forward to the author chat - stop by to see what the fuss is all about!

Source: Review copy