The Skinny: June Reads
I've been in Cleveland since Saturday and I feel like I'm finally hitting a good rhythm in my new home! I might have been a little too ambitious when I was setting my alarm last night. My phone started buzzing at 5:30 AM for a 6:00 AM spin class and, after I promptly silenced the alarm, I fell back into a deep sleep. At around 8:00 AM I finally came around and hauled myself out of bed. I'm still exploring my new gym (and all of its awesome group fitness classes), but today I decided to keep it light - 30 minutes of cycling (~ 12 mi), 30 minutes of strength training, and 15 minutes of yoga & meditation when I got back home.
Since I'll be starting school in a few weeks, most of my to-read list is comprised of medical school guide books & Atul Gawande articles. Right after getting back from New Orleans for Memorial Day Weekend, though, I managed to whip through Kitchens of the Great Midwest. This book (and its characters) have so much personality and spunk. More of my thoughts below!
Kitchens of the Great Midwest J Ryan Stradal, 312 pages
The novel opens on a couple and their young daughter, Eva Thorvald, and discuss how big a role food and drink play in this family. As the narrative progresses, it becomes clear that Eva's mother, Cynthia (Cindy for short), is unhappy with her domestic life and doesn't believe that she is suited to take care of Eva. She eventually leaves the family and ventures to Europe - never to be seen or heard from again by Eva or her father. A few months after Cindy leaves, Eva's father passes away in a freak accident and she is left in the care of a family friend. The book walks through Eva's life as she goes through young adulthood and ultimately finds herself the chef of a popular supper club in New York City. Her supper club becomes so popular that she is unable to handle all the cooking and preparation by herself. Ultimately she decides to scale back the number of seats available at each supper club (which lends a sense of exclusivity) and increases the price per seat for her luxurious five course meal.
The latter half of the novel delves into Cindy's backstory. Cindy eventually finds her way onto the waitlist for Eva's supper club and ends up with an invitation. The supper clubs are now hosted all over the world. Eva plans each location, each ingredient (locally source), and each course years in advance for her supper club. Upon their reunion, it's clear that Cindy has no intention of revealing the truth to Eva, though she does learn of her late husband's passing. The novel closes on a content note, but more so a period than an exclamation mark. The narrative, though told from different characters' points of view, unfolds beautifully and smoothly. Working through Eva as a character isn't too different than kneading out a thick portion of dough. As soon as you turn over the dough and press the heel of your palm into it, the story takes on a radically different perspective than you could have imagined. In having multiple narrators, some pieces of the plot are left to the reader's imagination, which I love. Stradal gives his audience the opportunity to insert their own guesswork into the story's narrative frame.
Eva, as a character, is not immediately likeable. She can come across as aloof and, at times, unrelatable. She has endured a lot, and clearly shows resilience and fortitude, but oftentimes at the expense of being open about her emotions. This is a novel that weaves a complicated but, ultimately, worthwhile story. Pick it up and try not to finish it in 3 days!
