I just started reading it, and I always appreciate your background on the author and historical context - it adds such richness to my reading experience!
Was so hoping to join this as I love her writing on France (close to my heart) but I'm away leading a tour in the Basque Country. Sorry for the dumb question (new subscriber here) - will it be recorded? I was recently on a call with another writer group with MFK's daughter Kennedy Golden and grandson Alex Wright and it was fascinating. :-)
I can't wait to be in conversation with you and everyone about Mary Frances, whose work I've been obsessed with for as long as I've been in the food world, and a lovely publisher in northern California, North Point Press, reissued all of her books in beautifully jacketed paperback editions. I read all of them, but The Gastronomical Me stuck with and to me like glue. As you say, she is nothing less than an enigma -- still, after all these years -- and there are certain things I've come away with having read her work so closely and for so long: she absolutely had a skewed sense of accuracy, she could carry grudges like my grandmother carried handbags, she definitely had a queer sensibility in every sense of the word, as you say. She was also a startlingly brilliant writer about food but also a deeply idiosyncratic one: her "recipe" for air-warmed tangerines defines food porn. She was as complicated a person as one gets, who lived through every manner of love and lust and tragedy and flavor.
I love that she’s complicated - she keeps taking you by surprise and pushing the limits of your belief. But then she’s such a cracking storyteller, you just surrender!
I just started reading it, and I always appreciate your background on the author and historical context - it adds such richness to my reading experience!
I’m working my way through two different biographies of Mary Frances - she was quite the character.
Was so hoping to join this as I love her writing on France (close to my heart) but I'm away leading a tour in the Basque Country. Sorry for the dumb question (new subscriber here) - will it be recorded? I was recently on a call with another writer group with MFK's daughter Kennedy Golden and grandson Alex Wright and it was fascinating. :-)
Absolutely- anything we do live gets sent out as soon as possible afterwards. Fear not!
Oh wonderful! Look forward to listening on my return then. Thank you 🙏
I can't wait to be in conversation with you and everyone about Mary Frances, whose work I've been obsessed with for as long as I've been in the food world, and a lovely publisher in northern California, North Point Press, reissued all of her books in beautifully jacketed paperback editions. I read all of them, but The Gastronomical Me stuck with and to me like glue. As you say, she is nothing less than an enigma -- still, after all these years -- and there are certain things I've come away with having read her work so closely and for so long: she absolutely had a skewed sense of accuracy, she could carry grudges like my grandmother carried handbags, she definitely had a queer sensibility in every sense of the word, as you say. She was also a startlingly brilliant writer about food but also a deeply idiosyncratic one: her "recipe" for air-warmed tangerines defines food porn. She was as complicated a person as one gets, who lived through every manner of love and lust and tragedy and flavor.
I love that she’s complicated - she keeps taking you by surprise and pushing the limits of your belief. But then she’s such a cracking storyteller, you just surrender!
Your introduction now makes sense of my gasping as I read!😭😫🤣🥰
Haha yes! There are definite ‘WHAT??’ moments!
Love the plan. Starting the book this week.
Glad to hear it!
Sounds fascinating! 🦪
Oh it’s great!