Synopses & Reviews
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.
This memoir derives from Kate's popular foodcentric blog (http://katechristensen.wordpress.com), in which she shares scenes from an unusual upbringing and an unusually happy present-day life, providing an audience for this book that is already primed. That it is written by Kate Christensen means it will be a delicious reading experience in every sense — a compulsively readable account of a knockabout life, full of sorrows and pleasures, many of the latter of the sensual, appetitive variety.
Review
“Blue Plate Special is the evocative, irresistible tale of the life and loves of one of America’s greatest writers, Kate Christensen. Her loves include: Family, friends, men, travel, literature, but perhaps most of all, food. This is a breathtaking book, sensuously written, emotionally generous, and decadent as a bowl of macaroni and cheese.” Jami Attenberg, author of The Middlesteins
Review
“Kate Christensen’s prose has always been dazzling and brilliant even as it amuses and entertains. In Blue Plate Special, she applies her formidable talent to a memoir about the role of food in her (not always easy or kosher) past and present. The result is a glorious feast of meals, prose, and life from one of our finest writers today — a banquet of a book about eating, loving, and overcoming, to be devoured as fast as one’s fingers can turn the pages.” Cathi Hanauer, author of Gone and Sweet Ruin, and editor of The Bitch in the House
About the Author
Kate Christensen is the author of six previous novels, most recently The Astral. The Great Man won the 2008 PEN/Faulkner Award. She has written reviews and essays for numerous publications, most recently The New York Times Book Review, Bookforum, Tin House, Elle, and Open City. She also has a new column in The Wall Street Journal, "With a Twist." Her blog can be accessed at: http://katechristensen.wordpress.com