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Blue Plate Special: An Autobiography of My Appetites
A delectable memoir about the transformative power of food, Blue Plate Special is a deeply personal narrative in which food becomes the vehicle for exploring a life. Here, novelist Kate Christensen tells her own story, from her unorthodox childhood in 1960s Berkeley as the daughter of a legal activist who ruled the house with his fists to her extraordinary success as a PEN/Faulkner Award-winning author. Hungry not just for food, but for love and a sense of belonging, Christensen writes honestly about her struggle to find the contentment she has always yearned for. A beautifully written account of a knockabout life, full of sorrows, pleasures--and, of course, food--Blue Plate Special is a delicious reading experience.
368 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2013
113 people are currently reading
3535 people want to read
About the author
Kate Christensen
19 books422 followersKATE CHRISTENSEN is the author of eleven novels, most recently Welcome Home, Stranger, The Sacred & the Divine (with Melissa Henderson), and The Arizona Triangle (as Sydney Graves). She has also published two food-centric memoirs. Her newest novel, Good Company, is forthcoming in June 2026. Her fourth novel, The Great Man, won the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. Her stories, reviews, and essays have appeared in numerous publications and anthologies. She lives in northern New Mexico with her husband and their two dogs.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 385 reviews
July 20, 2013
The main problem with this book I don't understand its purpose. Why does a 40-somthing author of average note need to write an autobiography? To be fair, I have not read any of Christensen's novels, so maybe her fans were clamoring to know more about her as a person. This book was suggested to me probably because of the subtitle "An Autobiography of My Appetites," and I generally like reading foodie books. However, I think to call this a foodie memoir is a stretch. She does talk about food some, but mostly the book is about her bizarre upbringing and what seems to me as lack of maturity well into her 30s. If it weren't true, I almost wouldn't believe it. It's all here: abusive spouses, poverty, religious cults, child molestation, anorexia, bing eating, sex addition, undocumented work status, mental breakdowns, etc. I only finished it because I was curious about what crisis would come next. The last chapter deals with her new love, and she waxes poetic about how he is her soul mate, she finally found her happiness, etc. Good for her . . . except she thought that at least twice before.
September 15, 2018
Library Overdrive Audiobook....narrated by Tavia Gilbert
.......my first book by the author Kate Christensen.
This book was a great discovery. I literally found it by accident—I started listening with zero expectations.
Kate’s passions are *eating*, *cooking*, *reading*and *writing*!
These passions are interwoven into the ‘bigger’ story that Kate shares about her LIFE.
I enjoyed her stories:
happy & sad -
about her family life - happy &
Sad..
The different places she lived
happy &
Sad
steps she took towards
becoming a writer -
happy &........ 🙁
There are yummy food descriptions and recipes - 🥑🥦🥕
WHAT I LOVED BEST WAS....
Kate’s honest vulnerability about herself and the relationships that had a profound impact on her —-positively and negatively.
Happy and.....( you guessed it: sad).
I look forward to reading more books by a Kate Christensen. I like her writing - it’s intimate.
.......my first book by the author Kate Christensen.
This book was a great discovery. I literally found it by accident—I started listening with zero expectations.
Kate’s passions are *eating*, *cooking*, *reading*and *writing*!
These passions are interwoven into the ‘bigger’ story that Kate shares about her LIFE.
I enjoyed her stories:
happy & sad -
about her family life - happy &
Sad..
The different places she lived
happy &
Sad
steps she took towards
becoming a writer -
happy &........ 🙁
There are yummy food descriptions and recipes - 🥑🥦🥕
WHAT I LOVED BEST WAS....
Kate’s honest vulnerability about herself and the relationships that had a profound impact on her —-positively and negatively.
Happy and.....( you guessed it: sad).
I look forward to reading more books by a Kate Christensen. I like her writing - it’s intimate.
August 13, 2016
I didn't completely hate this, but there were three problems for me. In no particular order:
[1] Though Christensen's novels are creative and witty and have a distinctive voice, the writing in this book was only functional. Sentence-level uninteresting, too. As if writing about herself led her to over-edit and deplete her own style. Even though she covers a lot of material, the writing is formulaic, like litanies of what happened each year. But that's too many incidents crammed in - as if she's trying to write an "autobiography," not a memoir.
2] The self-absorption, without looking out into the wider world. For what it's worth if one wants to compare it to other recent popular memoirs by female authors who also write fiction, Cheryl Strayed is a more compassionate voice and a more self-deprecating memoirist; Elizabeth Gilbert is more honest, funnier, and more insightful; and Lidia Yuknavitch is more experimental in style and absolutely fearless in depicting her problems and faults.
3] It wasn't about food or appetites, not even thematically (unless telling us she is "gluttonous" about 100x is the requirement). I wasn't necessarily looking for a foodie memoir, but it's kind of false advertising. The recipes thrown in after random chapters added nada, and sometimes seemed absurd. ("Bean burritos: open a can of refried beans and spread 1/3 of the can on an open tortilla ...." really?) And what's with the extreme gluten intolerance except when visiting Italy? (I don't think you can just make an temporary exception to eat pasta and bread for duration of your vacation. False false.)
[1] Though Christensen's novels are creative and witty and have a distinctive voice, the writing in this book was only functional. Sentence-level uninteresting, too. As if writing about herself led her to over-edit and deplete her own style. Even though she covers a lot of material, the writing is formulaic, like litanies of what happened each year. But that's too many incidents crammed in - as if she's trying to write an "autobiography," not a memoir.
2] The self-absorption, without looking out into the wider world. For what it's worth if one wants to compare it to other recent popular memoirs by female authors who also write fiction, Cheryl Strayed is a more compassionate voice and a more self-deprecating memoirist; Elizabeth Gilbert is more honest, funnier, and more insightful; and Lidia Yuknavitch is more experimental in style and absolutely fearless in depicting her problems and faults.
3] It wasn't about food or appetites, not even thematically (unless telling us she is "gluttonous" about 100x is the requirement). I wasn't necessarily looking for a foodie memoir, but it's kind of false advertising. The recipes thrown in after random chapters added nada, and sometimes seemed absurd. ("Bean burritos: open a can of refried beans and spread 1/3 of the can on an open tortilla ...." really?) And what's with the extreme gluten intolerance except when visiting Italy? (I don't think you can just make an temporary exception to eat pasta and bread for duration of your vacation. False false.)
July 15, 2013
My first run in with Kate’s work was back in 2008 when my innocent twenty seven year old self finally got to learn a thing or two about wine from reading The Great Man. I passed the simple yet creative cover at a bookstore and then traced back, took a peak and decided to read it. I was mesmerized by the language, the wording and the complex imagination and the cover that stopped me was of a simple paint brush, I do art and design for a living so it called me with its elegant simplicity. Perhaps the most important of all, I walked away with a curiosity of what a Sancerre, which was drank in the book under grape wines on a hot day in the garden during a very special scene, I wondered how it really tasted in comparison to a fruity, dry Pinot Grigio which I would normally think as sophisticated. I have always loved food and I have always loved books but this was the first time I have witnessed characters in a book eat and drink, and I really do mean eat. They sank their teeth into mouthwatering meals of chicken and salad, luscious eggy pasta, fennel, wine, canapés with oozing cheese, olives, golden spicy oil dripping off charred sourdough slices while two people debated their future together, fought, cried or grieved.
As years passed and I read more of her work, I noticed that in all her novels the characters and plots intertwined with brilliant literary intensity but food always made its way around and it sparked a hunger in me that no other writing has ever done. I was not aware of M.F. K. Fisher and others until I started reading Kate’s work, I have read almost all of her novels and this memoir while being non-fiction has an echo of the creator, the great engineer of those novels. Suddenly I could see reflections of her struggles, her own life and ideas in the books. With Blue Plate Special, finally after all this time I had an extra sense of appreciation of what went into making them and I got a glimpse of the engineer herself. I find it ironic that so many people out there are outraged at this book; perhaps they were expecting a cookbook and not a memoir from someone who can handle fiction so well. I was stunned to read about what the author was going through while writing my favorite book which is The Epicure’s Lament, I had no idea that half way through creating it her world collapsed and she was unable to write, that cutoff was never evident in a story that I still love all these years later, a story that ties food and love, life, passion, the daily struggle and philosophy peppered with wit and pleasures which should never be guilty.
In The Blue Plate Special, the author holds back very little as she narrates her incredible childhood and quite an adventurous life that took her to other continents and finally her place in the world today. She writes freely and openly, only Christensen would mention that champagne tastes like an apple cut with a steel knife and how she had to eat what the character was eating as she read from an early age, she knows what makes for great reading and this is no exception. Her life on a plate, comforts and the cleanups, the whole meal is here and I feel humbled and appreciative that I got to get a glimpse into the private world of a great mind. The behind the scenes on her life and what was going on as she was working on novels that are now some of my favorite reads is priceless. And the non-recipe recipe for cheese and bean burritos on page 227 isn’t too bad either, I could get addicted to it :P
They say that the best food, is honest cooking, well this personal non fictional memoir is as honest as it gets, so bon appétit.
- Kasia S.
As years passed and I read more of her work, I noticed that in all her novels the characters and plots intertwined with brilliant literary intensity but food always made its way around and it sparked a hunger in me that no other writing has ever done. I was not aware of M.F. K. Fisher and others until I started reading Kate’s work, I have read almost all of her novels and this memoir while being non-fiction has an echo of the creator, the great engineer of those novels. Suddenly I could see reflections of her struggles, her own life and ideas in the books. With Blue Plate Special, finally after all this time I had an extra sense of appreciation of what went into making them and I got a glimpse of the engineer herself. I find it ironic that so many people out there are outraged at this book; perhaps they were expecting a cookbook and not a memoir from someone who can handle fiction so well. I was stunned to read about what the author was going through while writing my favorite book which is The Epicure’s Lament, I had no idea that half way through creating it her world collapsed and she was unable to write, that cutoff was never evident in a story that I still love all these years later, a story that ties food and love, life, passion, the daily struggle and philosophy peppered with wit and pleasures which should never be guilty.
In The Blue Plate Special, the author holds back very little as she narrates her incredible childhood and quite an adventurous life that took her to other continents and finally her place in the world today. She writes freely and openly, only Christensen would mention that champagne tastes like an apple cut with a steel knife and how she had to eat what the character was eating as she read from an early age, she knows what makes for great reading and this is no exception. Her life on a plate, comforts and the cleanups, the whole meal is here and I feel humbled and appreciative that I got to get a glimpse into the private world of a great mind. The behind the scenes on her life and what was going on as she was working on novels that are now some of my favorite reads is priceless. And the non-recipe recipe for cheese and bean burritos on page 227 isn’t too bad either, I could get addicted to it :P
They say that the best food, is honest cooking, well this personal non fictional memoir is as honest as it gets, so bon appétit.
- Kasia S.
September 22, 2016
Blue Plate Special isn't really a food memoir. Sure, it's got food in it, and even some recipes. But looking back at it two months after finishing, what I really remember is Kate Christensen's courageous portrayal of her struggles to become a writer and a fully functioning adult. She's eloquent and honest, and the book is as good at places as it is at food. With its vivid descriptions of the various towns and cities where she's lived, Blue Plate Special could have been a travel memoir just as easily as a food memoir. Either way, it was immensely satisfying for the likes of me. I'm looking forward to her follow-up memoir, How to Cook a Moose--although it seems like that one really is about food.
July 29, 2013
Writing quality: 5 stars. That's the easy part.
The hard part is basically thus: You can't really "review" this sort of navel-gazing memoire without basically rating someone's life, and that's just plain uncomfortable, at least to me. I can now definitely assert that I much more enjoy memoires when they involve an historically significant event or period, or are put in a larger context of some greater social or historical upheaval. (See, for example, Madeline Albright's memoires.) This memoire, of the navel gazing variety, is interesting enough and there are some historical / social aspects that give it a larger context (e.g., Berkeley circa ~1970), but often the interesting bits are interesting in the way that rubber necking a bad car accident is *interesting*. In essence, the author pulled out what must have been her 100's of journals going back to when she could first write and then wrote a memoire based on the journals. As such, we reel from one "I did this shitty thing" to "I did this other shitty thing," and from "this shitty thing was inflicted upon me" to "that shitty thing also happened to me." Enough. 1 star for this part.
And so I averaged: 3 stars.
The hard part is basically thus: You can't really "review" this sort of navel-gazing memoire without basically rating someone's life, and that's just plain uncomfortable, at least to me. I can now definitely assert that I much more enjoy memoires when they involve an historically significant event or period, or are put in a larger context of some greater social or historical upheaval. (See, for example, Madeline Albright's memoires.) This memoire, of the navel gazing variety, is interesting enough and there are some historical / social aspects that give it a larger context (e.g., Berkeley circa ~1970), but often the interesting bits are interesting in the way that rubber necking a bad car accident is *interesting*. In essence, the author pulled out what must have been her 100's of journals going back to when she could first write and then wrote a memoire based on the journals. As such, we reel from one "I did this shitty thing" to "I did this other shitty thing," and from "this shitty thing was inflicted upon me" to "that shitty thing also happened to me." Enough. 1 star for this part.
And so I averaged: 3 stars.
October 27, 2016
I love memoirs and I especially love memoirs which are, in some way, centered around food. I enjoy memoirs so much, I suppose, because they allow me to slip inside another person's life for just a little while and every now and then I am able to find some commonality between the person't life and my own. I have been especially drawn to memoirs which involve food because food.. preparing and presenting food is the best way I know to demonstrate my love for the people in my life. Preparing a wholesome, delicious meal is nurturing and in my heart, I'm a nurturer.
I was drawn to 'Blue Plate Special: An Autobiography of My Appetites' by Kate Christensen because it promised to be a life story I could relate to. Kate Christensen is an author of mainly fictional books and I have read only one of those novels, 'Trouble' and although I found her to be a good writer, I couldn't really connect with the story. And unfortunately, despite the promise made inside the jacket of this book, I found I couldn't really connect with her on a personal level either.
It's difficult for me to rate the memoirs I read. How can I possibly assign a particular number of stars to someone's telling of their life story… judging it as I'm rating a restaurant or hotel? I can only present the impressions I was left with when reading about Kate Christensen's life….
This book began with a startling scene…. Kate recalls a memory of her early childhood. She was living with her mother, father and younger sister in Berkeley, California. She remembered a breakfast scene from her family's kitchen. The memory started out quite beautifully.. Kate described the soft boiled eggs and the perfect triangles of toast which her mother enjoyed preparing for her family's breakfast. I could picture the sunny, early morning kitchen… parents and two young daughters seated around the table. Her father, whom we come to learn can be charming but can quickly become unpredictable and volatile, was preparing to leave for work. Her mother, who was exhausted and overwhelmed from caring for two young children begged him to stay and help her for a little while. Shockingly and beginning a pattern which would repeat over and over in the ensuing years, her father turned toward her mother and began assaulting her, punching her over and over in her abdomen and breasts. This violent outburst ended as quickly as it began and he left the family home that morning with three stunned, white-faced people in his wake. In thinking about that horrible scene, I believe this event would set up a pattern for his oldest daughter, Kate, which she would struggle with for much of her life.
Eventually, after giving birth to a third daughter and experiencing additional beatings, Kate's mother divorced her father and she took her daughters to live in Tempe, Arizona, where she enrolled in school for a post doc in psychology. I couldn't help but wonder at this point how many people study psychology simply to attempt to make sense of their own ruined lives or the dysfunctional lives of their families. Regardless, Kate, her mother and her sisters attempted to settle in Arizona but not only did they experience a kind of 'culture shock' as Arizona was quite different from Berkeley; but their lifestyles were also changed. her father sent minimal child support (for a time) but they sometimes struggled with having enough to eat. It seemed to me that Kate's mother was providing for her daughters as best she could .. preparing meals she called old fashioned, homemade and cheap.. what she referred to throughout her daughters' growing up years as her "blue plate specials".
It seems that the early years of instability and chaos set up a pattern in Kate's life.. one that she didn't begin to even recognize until she was much older. Kate wrote about her years as a young adult.. her college years and her desire to write novels, at which she began to enjoy a level of success, an invitation to attend the Iowa Writer's Workshop, a string of uninspired relationships with men, promiscuous behavior and more than a flirtation with excessive binge drinking . She described in these pages a life which, like her childhood home, was full of chaos and self-created drama. And through all of her experiences she wrote about food and hunger and what she considered to be her voracious appetite (and that may be the truth as she saw it) ; but all I could think of was that she seemed to be describing a battle with a serious eating disorder.. periods of gorging on food, comforting herself with each morsel she placed in her mouth.. followed by periods of starving herself and self-denial of that comfort she craved.
Kate ended up marrying a man who had a successful career and seemed determined to make her happy. But it came as no real surprise to me when she described how it all fell apart one day. I honestly can't figure out just WHY the marriage failed .. it just felt inevitable. Sure, she wrote about her frantically ticking biological clock and then discovering that her husband didn't ever want children. I was baffled by that admission as it seems a topic that a couple would definitely discuss BEFORE the marriage takes place. But at that time, she decided that although she was heartbroken that she would never have a child, she wanted to stay in the marriage… until one day, she didn't.
Kate Christensen finished her memoir on what I assume she meant to be a positive note… admitting that mistakes were made but lessons were learned. We leave her at the dawn of a new relationship in her life. She met a much younger man whom she thinks of as her 'soul mate' (whatever that means) and they are sharing an old farm house in rural Maine. She assures us that she finally has her life where she wants it to be.. with a man she is comfortable with and living the quite life she has always longed for. I wish I could say that upon closing this book, I had the positive feelings she had. Clearly, it is HER life and not my concern or my business; however, she DID write the book for the world to read, right? I could never shake the feeling that perhaps Kate was simply SAYING all the right things.. the things she knew would be expected of someone who had learned from her mistakes and was on course to turn her life in a different direction. I had the feeling that she had either undergone many hours of psychotherapy or had read stacks of self-help books. She definitely seemed acquainted with the pop psychology jargon. But I still have a niggling doubt in my mind. She HAD absolutely identified her self-destructive life choices and patterns … I just wasn't convinced that anything in her life had truly changed. Hopefully, I'm wrong…..
I was drawn to 'Blue Plate Special: An Autobiography of My Appetites' by Kate Christensen because it promised to be a life story I could relate to. Kate Christensen is an author of mainly fictional books and I have read only one of those novels, 'Trouble' and although I found her to be a good writer, I couldn't really connect with the story. And unfortunately, despite the promise made inside the jacket of this book, I found I couldn't really connect with her on a personal level either.
It's difficult for me to rate the memoirs I read. How can I possibly assign a particular number of stars to someone's telling of their life story… judging it as I'm rating a restaurant or hotel? I can only present the impressions I was left with when reading about Kate Christensen's life….
This book began with a startling scene…. Kate recalls a memory of her early childhood. She was living with her mother, father and younger sister in Berkeley, California. She remembered a breakfast scene from her family's kitchen. The memory started out quite beautifully.. Kate described the soft boiled eggs and the perfect triangles of toast which her mother enjoyed preparing for her family's breakfast. I could picture the sunny, early morning kitchen… parents and two young daughters seated around the table. Her father, whom we come to learn can be charming but can quickly become unpredictable and volatile, was preparing to leave for work. Her mother, who was exhausted and overwhelmed from caring for two young children begged him to stay and help her for a little while. Shockingly and beginning a pattern which would repeat over and over in the ensuing years, her father turned toward her mother and began assaulting her, punching her over and over in her abdomen and breasts. This violent outburst ended as quickly as it began and he left the family home that morning with three stunned, white-faced people in his wake. In thinking about that horrible scene, I believe this event would set up a pattern for his oldest daughter, Kate, which she would struggle with for much of her life.
Eventually, after giving birth to a third daughter and experiencing additional beatings, Kate's mother divorced her father and she took her daughters to live in Tempe, Arizona, where she enrolled in school for a post doc in psychology. I couldn't help but wonder at this point how many people study psychology simply to attempt to make sense of their own ruined lives or the dysfunctional lives of their families. Regardless, Kate, her mother and her sisters attempted to settle in Arizona but not only did they experience a kind of 'culture shock' as Arizona was quite different from Berkeley; but their lifestyles were also changed. her father sent minimal child support (for a time) but they sometimes struggled with having enough to eat. It seemed to me that Kate's mother was providing for her daughters as best she could .. preparing meals she called old fashioned, homemade and cheap.. what she referred to throughout her daughters' growing up years as her "blue plate specials".
It seems that the early years of instability and chaos set up a pattern in Kate's life.. one that she didn't begin to even recognize until she was much older. Kate wrote about her years as a young adult.. her college years and her desire to write novels, at which she began to enjoy a level of success, an invitation to attend the Iowa Writer's Workshop, a string of uninspired relationships with men, promiscuous behavior and more than a flirtation with excessive binge drinking . She described in these pages a life which, like her childhood home, was full of chaos and self-created drama. And through all of her experiences she wrote about food and hunger and what she considered to be her voracious appetite (and that may be the truth as she saw it) ; but all I could think of was that she seemed to be describing a battle with a serious eating disorder.. periods of gorging on food, comforting herself with each morsel she placed in her mouth.. followed by periods of starving herself and self-denial of that comfort she craved.
Kate ended up marrying a man who had a successful career and seemed determined to make her happy. But it came as no real surprise to me when she described how it all fell apart one day. I honestly can't figure out just WHY the marriage failed .. it just felt inevitable. Sure, she wrote about her frantically ticking biological clock and then discovering that her husband didn't ever want children. I was baffled by that admission as it seems a topic that a couple would definitely discuss BEFORE the marriage takes place. But at that time, she decided that although she was heartbroken that she would never have a child, she wanted to stay in the marriage… until one day, she didn't.
Kate Christensen finished her memoir on what I assume she meant to be a positive note… admitting that mistakes were made but lessons were learned. We leave her at the dawn of a new relationship in her life. She met a much younger man whom she thinks of as her 'soul mate' (whatever that means) and they are sharing an old farm house in rural Maine. She assures us that she finally has her life where she wants it to be.. with a man she is comfortable with and living the quite life she has always longed for. I wish I could say that upon closing this book, I had the positive feelings she had. Clearly, it is HER life and not my concern or my business; however, she DID write the book for the world to read, right? I could never shake the feeling that perhaps Kate was simply SAYING all the right things.. the things she knew would be expected of someone who had learned from her mistakes and was on course to turn her life in a different direction. I had the feeling that she had either undergone many hours of psychotherapy or had read stacks of self-help books. She definitely seemed acquainted with the pop psychology jargon. But I still have a niggling doubt in my mind. She HAD absolutely identified her self-destructive life choices and patterns … I just wasn't convinced that anything in her life had truly changed. Hopefully, I'm wrong…..
May 8, 2013
I was having a hard time settling for anything I picked up until this book. My advice? Get it as soon as possible. I'm not braggin' People, but my copy is an ARC. (Okay, I AM bragging.) I LOVED it! I made a list of her already published books that I must have! 'Blue Plate Special' is Christensen's memoir encompassing her early life on to her college and adult life with all her quirky family and her quirkier decisions. Not average in any way. The liet motif throughout is her enjoyment - her adoration - of food and the part it has played in sustaining her. Christensen has been extremely courageous throughout and very forthcoming in her most intimate story. Growing up out west, coming east to school, working as an au pair in Europe, then traveling there with her friends and lovers, and moving to New York for work and marriage. Her determination in any endeavor is stunning, simply unwilling to be defeated. Always with the backdrop of food and family. I became so immersed that it was hard to step out of her life when I turned the last page.
July 12, 2013
This memoir about author Kate Christensen's life is a compulsively readable account of a truly odd upbringing and an itinerant (and extended) young adulthood. The author frames the circumstances of her life around three dominant themes: food and sex, and to a lesser extent, writing. Her ravenous hunger for each makes the subtitle of this book, "An Autobiography of My Appetites," more than apt.
The first part of the book, dealing with her early life as the child of hippie parents, was fascinating, though at the same time disturbing. I had a lot of sympathy for the young Kate Christensen. I wish parents would realize how profoundly their self-centeredness affects their children for life.
My interest in the author's descriptions of food lasted for the entire book, but I must say I quickly lost interest in her adult life, soaked as it is in alcohol and lust. As the book progresses, the author morphs into a person I didn't particularly like. She estranges herself from her mother and her sister, and writes prettily about it: "Susan and I had some minor sisterly spat one day over a lunch of pierogis and borscht at a Polish place on Second Avenue." The "spat" turns into years of estrangement, to the point that they pass each other on the street without acknowledging each other. It isn't until her mother becomes gravely ill that they all patch things up.
I suspect alcohol had a lot to do with her difficult life and fractious relationships, as it does for so many writers. "I drank excessively out of my chronic and ongoing sense of self-loathing, to escape myself, to flee the annoying chirpiness of my too clear, too verbal brain, so recently educated, so freshly imbued with the powers of literary analysis and writerly dogma," she writes. Yet her rationalizing fell flat for me. She follows that statement with this one: "I realized I had no control over anything at all, even my own fate." Not true. She could have had control; she gave it up in her quest to appease her appetites.
In the end, I lost patience with the author, whose contradictions bothered me. "I have always felt loneliest in the presence of other people," she writes. "For me, loneliness comes from a sense of missing something. I never miss anything when I'm alone." That's a lovely sentiment, but the author just doesn't live it. She seems incapable of being alone or remaining happy. For her, contentment never seems to last. It's those appetites again.
The first part of the book, dealing with her early life as the child of hippie parents, was fascinating, though at the same time disturbing. I had a lot of sympathy for the young Kate Christensen. I wish parents would realize how profoundly their self-centeredness affects their children for life.
My interest in the author's descriptions of food lasted for the entire book, but I must say I quickly lost interest in her adult life, soaked as it is in alcohol and lust. As the book progresses, the author morphs into a person I didn't particularly like. She estranges herself from her mother and her sister, and writes prettily about it: "Susan and I had some minor sisterly spat one day over a lunch of pierogis and borscht at a Polish place on Second Avenue." The "spat" turns into years of estrangement, to the point that they pass each other on the street without acknowledging each other. It isn't until her mother becomes gravely ill that they all patch things up.
I suspect alcohol had a lot to do with her difficult life and fractious relationships, as it does for so many writers. "I drank excessively out of my chronic and ongoing sense of self-loathing, to escape myself, to flee the annoying chirpiness of my too clear, too verbal brain, so recently educated, so freshly imbued with the powers of literary analysis and writerly dogma," she writes. Yet her rationalizing fell flat for me. She follows that statement with this one: "I realized I had no control over anything at all, even my own fate." Not true. She could have had control; she gave it up in her quest to appease her appetites.
In the end, I lost patience with the author, whose contradictions bothered me. "I have always felt loneliest in the presence of other people," she writes. "For me, loneliness comes from a sense of missing something. I never miss anything when I'm alone." That's a lovely sentiment, but the author just doesn't live it. She seems incapable of being alone or remaining happy. For her, contentment never seems to last. It's those appetites again.
May 3, 2013
Sometimes a book arrives in your hands like a cosmic gift. Blue Plate Special was that gift for me.
I've been a fan of Kate Christensen's writing for years (Epicure's Lament is my favorite, which I'm now eager to go back and re-read), and this memoir draws back the curtain on the author's own life and the real inspiration for some of the stories and characters that populate her novels.
But more than that, I loved this book because I feel a great kinship to Kate Christensen. This is a woman who has uprooted herself umpteen times, who considered herself a late bloomer, who has felt full on the pangs of loneliness alongside the exquisite pleasure of solitude, who has found joys and solace in food, in place, in observation, and in self-reflection. In so many ways, I feel that I am putting my feet right into the steps of this woman who has gone before me, and somehow reading this book made my uncertain, zigzaggy path seem a bit safer.
A book that blends the raw emotional honesty of something like "The Glass Castle" with the food-centric storytelling of "Blood, Bones & Butter."
I've been a fan of Kate Christensen's writing for years (Epicure's Lament is my favorite, which I'm now eager to go back and re-read), and this memoir draws back the curtain on the author's own life and the real inspiration for some of the stories and characters that populate her novels.
But more than that, I loved this book because I feel a great kinship to Kate Christensen. This is a woman who has uprooted herself umpteen times, who considered herself a late bloomer, who has felt full on the pangs of loneliness alongside the exquisite pleasure of solitude, who has found joys and solace in food, in place, in observation, and in self-reflection. In so many ways, I feel that I am putting my feet right into the steps of this woman who has gone before me, and somehow reading this book made my uncertain, zigzaggy path seem a bit safer.
A book that blends the raw emotional honesty of something like "The Glass Castle" with the food-centric storytelling of "Blood, Bones & Butter."
July 19, 2013
I don't mind giving this five stars even though it is not a life-changing tome; it is insightful, reflective, healing, and incredibly honest. I love that Christensen makes such tough calls about her own life but makes no attempt to extend them to lessons for others. Sharp, incridibly sad, and funny.
November 24, 2013
While this was an interesting autobiography, the food theme promised *by the title of the book* was lacking. Her food mantra throughout the book was simply "I love food," and the few recipes included were just page-fillers that, 1) she did not have an emotional connection to, and 2) looked gross. Why not include the homemade soups and granola she learned to make in France and could not get enough of? Instead, we get "put refried beans in a tortilla and heat." ?? I also feel the author was stretching to fit as many words from the thesaurus as she could in this book, many times using a word, then it's synonym, then the meaning in one sentence. A lot of filler, not a lot of substance.
While I wanted to enjoy the story of her life, I couldn't get past the misleading title, and spent most of my time reading just waiting for the food to shine.
While I wanted to enjoy the story of her life, I couldn't get past the misleading title, and spent most of my time reading just waiting for the food to shine.
September 16, 2013
Just too solipsistic of the extreme egocentrism type. . . it seems like recent memoir has taken this turn. It felt like the author knew she was egocentric and self indulgent (she is certainly told that by others if her memoir is accurate), and in some way writing the book is her way of saying I'm no longer like that. I've matured or developed perspective. But the book still suggests significant egocentrism--so either the author doesn't know herself well or its really hard to lose the egocentric perspective when you've adopted it for 40+ years.
So, basically the story is all about Kate and occasionally about what she eats (or tries not to eat) but mostly about her. She does have an interesting (if by that you mean unusual) and well-traveled life if only you didn't have to go with Kate to get there . . .
Seems mean spirited and I don't mean it to be. But for those looking for something to read you have to be interested in looking at someone who is really dysfunctional and doesn't seem to have accepted much responsibility for that dysfunction. I find that irritating while others might find it amusing.
In the style of Eat, Pray Love and Wild.
So, basically the story is all about Kate and occasionally about what she eats (or tries not to eat) but mostly about her. She does have an interesting (if by that you mean unusual) and well-traveled life if only you didn't have to go with Kate to get there . . .
Seems mean spirited and I don't mean it to be. But for those looking for something to read you have to be interested in looking at someone who is really dysfunctional and doesn't seem to have accepted much responsibility for that dysfunction. I find that irritating while others might find it amusing.
In the style of Eat, Pray Love and Wild.
February 4, 2014
This book was written by an uninteresting person with an unremarkable life. Guess what? I too had a paper route. I too got the lead in a school play. I had to rebuff sexual advances from authority figures - and yet I haven't felt the need to inflict my nostalgic naval gazing via sub par prose upon the world.
May 29, 2013
Comfort food for mind and body
In "Blue Plate Special" Kate Christensen writes with a good measure of gusto and flare about the associations food has had with the events of her life. It's a memoir informed by the view that "to taste fully is to live fully."
It's a banquet of a book served up to be enjoyed - for the most part.
I found it to be what you would expect a memoir to be, a story at times heartwarming, funny, earthy, sad and even soulful.
It's written with obvious enthusiasm and flair. But the deeper I got into it I wondered more and more about what makes Christensen's life so much different from the life you and I lead. All of us share to some extent the same trials and tribulations, the joys and sorrows, the challenges and rewards of living. I don't know that her life transcends the ordinary enough to sustain a full-length memoir. I'd have much more appetite for reading about her life if it were dished out in smaller bites, on her blog perhaps.
The blue plate special of the title refers nostalgically to the meals her mother used to prepare for her and her sisters when they were young, the food that was "old fashioned and filling, and also cheap."
Christensen maintains that she was sustained throughout her life by memories conjured by the food she ate. Yes, and who is to disagree with that notion. My blue plate special was the meatloaf with peas and mashed potatoes my mother used to dish up on my birthdays, followed by a perfect slice of checkerboard (lemon and white) layer cake wrapped in fluffy swirls of tart lemony boiled frosting, a dessert all the more magical because I never could figure out how she made the checkerboard pattern.
Her memoir is parceled out chronologically and rooted in the foods she has consumed but also the many places she has lived. Each of the ten chapters includes a recipe for one of more of the dishes she cherishes and the context of the memory. All the stories Christensen tells are carefully - even splendidly crafted. Often they become truly moving. I found the vignettes about living in New York and starting out as a writer especially affecting.
Good food and good writing often manage to achieve something inspiring. I wish "Blue Plate Special" would have served up more to be truly savored.
In a word: Tantalizing
[3.5 stars]
In "Blue Plate Special" Kate Christensen writes with a good measure of gusto and flare about the associations food has had with the events of her life. It's a memoir informed by the view that "to taste fully is to live fully."
It's a banquet of a book served up to be enjoyed - for the most part.
I found it to be what you would expect a memoir to be, a story at times heartwarming, funny, earthy, sad and even soulful.
It's written with obvious enthusiasm and flair. But the deeper I got into it I wondered more and more about what makes Christensen's life so much different from the life you and I lead. All of us share to some extent the same trials and tribulations, the joys and sorrows, the challenges and rewards of living. I don't know that her life transcends the ordinary enough to sustain a full-length memoir. I'd have much more appetite for reading about her life if it were dished out in smaller bites, on her blog perhaps.
The blue plate special of the title refers nostalgically to the meals her mother used to prepare for her and her sisters when they were young, the food that was "old fashioned and filling, and also cheap."
Christensen maintains that she was sustained throughout her life by memories conjured by the food she ate. Yes, and who is to disagree with that notion. My blue plate special was the meatloaf with peas and mashed potatoes my mother used to dish up on my birthdays, followed by a perfect slice of checkerboard (lemon and white) layer cake wrapped in fluffy swirls of tart lemony boiled frosting, a dessert all the more magical because I never could figure out how she made the checkerboard pattern.
Her memoir is parceled out chronologically and rooted in the foods she has consumed but also the many places she has lived. Each of the ten chapters includes a recipe for one of more of the dishes she cherishes and the context of the memory. All the stories Christensen tells are carefully - even splendidly crafted. Often they become truly moving. I found the vignettes about living in New York and starting out as a writer especially affecting.
Good food and good writing often manage to achieve something inspiring. I wish "Blue Plate Special" would have served up more to be truly savored.
In a word: Tantalizing
[3.5 stars]
January 3, 2014
I'm unfamiliar with Christensen's books so I can't judge if this (nonfiction) is in the same vein as her novels. I loved the cover.
I'll give her credit for remembering first and last names going back to grade school but I sure didn't remember all the "then I dated XXX, and lived here, and then dated XXX and moved here, then I went back to XXX and lived here, across the street from XXX." Way too confusing for a non-New York City resident to keep track (or even care) about her different apartments/lofts/writing rooms.
While her years off between high school and college were interesting, I find it hard to believe that oops! she forgot to do the paperwork for financial aid and oops! did it for the wrong year. She's not that much younger than me, so while all the electronic resources weren't available, there were phones and copy machine and registered mail. She "forgot" about entering a writing contest while she was enrolled in the Iowa School for Writers (which she won). While it may be humble brag, to me, it was more arrogant--sure I won, I just knocked it off and forgot about it--when she was attending school for that very thing!
Sure food was mentioned, but I was confused about her gluten-intolerance diet--I would have thought it would be a total change like Paula Deen's diabetes.
Glad it had a happier ending than beginning.
I'll give her credit for remembering first and last names going back to grade school but I sure didn't remember all the "then I dated XXX, and lived here, and then dated XXX and moved here, then I went back to XXX and lived here, across the street from XXX." Way too confusing for a non-New York City resident to keep track (or even care) about her different apartments/lofts/writing rooms.
While her years off between high school and college were interesting, I find it hard to believe that oops! she forgot to do the paperwork for financial aid and oops! did it for the wrong year. She's not that much younger than me, so while all the electronic resources weren't available, there were phones and copy machine and registered mail. She "forgot" about entering a writing contest while she was enrolled in the Iowa School for Writers (which she won). While it may be humble brag, to me, it was more arrogant--sure I won, I just knocked it off and forgot about it--when she was attending school for that very thing!
Sure food was mentioned, but I was confused about her gluten-intolerance diet--I would have thought it would be a total change like Paula Deen's diabetes.
Glad it had a happier ending than beginning.
May 6, 2013
i would say 3.5-stars, if we could give half stars. it was an interesting read for me. i am impressed with christensen's ability to recall such wonderful moments in her life where food really stood out. i have one or two such moments...but certainly not a book's worth.
i have read a few memoirs of late, it's a genre i generally enjoy, and i am coming to realize that while memoirs are inherently self-indulgent, a really great writer can pull off a wonderful memoir without seeming to be entirely driven by ego. it's in this area where christensen wasn't entirely successful.
still, there are a small handful of recipes smattered throughout and christensen has certainly had an interesting and unconventional life. so this book will be appreciated by a good many people i think.
i have read a few memoirs of late, it's a genre i generally enjoy, and i am coming to realize that while memoirs are inherently self-indulgent, a really great writer can pull off a wonderful memoir without seeming to be entirely driven by ego. it's in this area where christensen wasn't entirely successful.
still, there are a small handful of recipes smattered throughout and christensen has certainly had an interesting and unconventional life. so this book will be appreciated by a good many people i think.
August 5, 2020
I read a collection of essays earlier this year and Christenson's was the one in that book that I enjoyed the most so I figured I'd check out some of her other writings. I've been in a memoir mood lately so chose this. It was good. It kept me engrossed while I was reading it. Nothing super amazing or radically different.
There are basically two types of memoirs. Those written by famous people and those written by non famous people who have had "interesting" (read that as crazy) lives. As a published author I guess Christensen lies somewhat between the two camps? Though really, she is not famous famous so I categorize her in the "I had a crazy life and survived it" group.
Her life wasn't super crazy - no cults or gruesome abuse or completely out-there lifestyle. What was most interesting to me was how frequently she moved and her descriptions of locations she lived at and places she visited on her many, many vacations. At times, this almost seemed like a travel memoir. About halfway through the memoir I thought it was going to veer into addiction/recovery territory but it never did. I dunno, she seems like an alcoholic to me but does not label herself as such. Maybe she will in another 10, 20 years when the health issues stemming from alcohol abuse crop up?
My biggest quibble is her age in writing this. UGH. Stop writing memoirs when your life is (hopefully) only half over, people! Unless you are someone like Shirley Temple, who had experienced a full career by the time she turned 18, you have no business writing your life story when you are 50. She ends the memoir (which is always something I'm wondering about whenever I read a memoir by someone in their 30-50s) by living happily ever after in the woods with her new boyfriend who is 20 years younger than her. Hmmmm. Ok, structurally that's a good place to end it but in terms of her real life....yeah, she is not living there with him for the next 35 years. I would bet money on it. She is all "Age is just a number!" which is fine and dandy at 26 & 46 but let's talk again when you are 56 & 76. Maybe I'm just a cynical jerk but it struck me as a very pie-in-the-sky sort of mindset.
Still, I'm glad I read this. It kept me occupied and entertained, the way a Netflix tv show does. Not a life changing book but every book doesn't have to be.
There are basically two types of memoirs. Those written by famous people and those written by non famous people who have had "interesting" (read that as crazy) lives. As a published author I guess Christensen lies somewhat between the two camps? Though really, she is not famous famous so I categorize her in the "I had a crazy life and survived it" group.
Her life wasn't super crazy - no cults or gruesome abuse or completely out-there lifestyle. What was most interesting to me was how frequently she moved and her descriptions of locations she lived at and places she visited on her many, many vacations. At times, this almost seemed like a travel memoir. About halfway through the memoir I thought it was going to veer into addiction/recovery territory but it never did. I dunno, she seems like an alcoholic to me but does not label herself as such. Maybe she will in another 10, 20 years when the health issues stemming from alcohol abuse crop up?
My biggest quibble is her age in writing this. UGH. Stop writing memoirs when your life is (hopefully) only half over, people! Unless you are someone like Shirley Temple, who had experienced a full career by the time she turned 18, you have no business writing your life story when you are 50. She ends the memoir (which is always something I'm wondering about whenever I read a memoir by someone in their 30-50s) by living happily ever after in the woods with her new boyfriend who is 20 years younger than her. Hmmmm. Ok, structurally that's a good place to end it but in terms of her real life....yeah, she is not living there with him for the next 35 years. I would bet money on it. She is all "Age is just a number!" which is fine and dandy at 26 & 46 but let's talk again when you are 56 & 76. Maybe I'm just a cynical jerk but it struck me as a very pie-in-the-sky sort of mindset.
Still, I'm glad I read this. It kept me occupied and entertained, the way a Netflix tv show does. Not a life changing book but every book doesn't have to be.
November 7, 2013
I had a number of problems with this book, the biggest one being that I realized that I just didn't care about Christensen and her appetites and reading the book made me care less and less. I'll be honest-I was skimming by the end just to see how it would end. Maybe if you are a big fan of her novels (I haven't read them) then you would care more about her but I feel like part of her job as an author is to make me care and she didn't do that. And while she has some beautifully written passages that evoke meals that she ate and made my mouth water, these were few and far between. She includes recipes at the end of each section but they are usually only peripherally related to the stories in the section and a lot of them weren't very appetizing. The one for bean burritos actually began with: Open a can of refried beans. A number of chapters also read like separate essays that were published elsewhere and then she strung them together for the book. This leads to repeating information which really annoys me in memoirs. I think maybe this book was an attempt to capitalize on the whole foodie book trend but it fell short of the mark for me. I was glad I got this out of the library and didn't buy it, I really don't recommend it.
August 15, 2013
I thought that this was far more of a "foodie" book than it turned out to be. She talks about food pretty often, and has included some recipes in the book, but this is really just a memoir of her childhood into early adulthood. And oh, boy, did she have one heck of a childhood. Her mother was something of an intellectual hippie who later became a psychotherapist , her father was a player pretty much, with a very violent streak and not much interest in his three daughters. There was a precession of stepfathers that really didn't work out. The family drifted from home to home, trying to be a regular family, but always ending up together in a very bonded family walking a tightrope day after day. Yet many amazing, and some rather crazy, opportunities came to them, and they got through the years. Christensen lays it all out, and doesn't hide anything it seems. She throws open all the doors and windows and walks you through it all. She has lived a very unique and full life so far, and her stories are amazing, though sometimes uncomfortable. This is a very unique "autobiography", and I would recommend this to anyone enjoys learning about different family styles and choices.
July 13, 2013
Pretty much anyone who knows me knows that I do not cook so it may surprise you that I very much enjoyed this book.
But this book isn't just intended to be for people who cook. It's pretty much for people who love food and people who love hearing other people's stories. And on all three counts, it succeeds admirably. Blue Plate Special is a book for people who enjoy food and for people who appreciate good stories well told.
And that's honestly the best part of the book for me. Kate Christensen has had an amazing life and she shares her stories in brief vignettes (sometimes accompanied by recipes, sometimes not). It's something that's completely prevalent, the fact that so many of our own stories involve food somehow. Holidays, obviously, but generally even celebrations or spending time with friends, right? This book celebrates that.
And as for the recipes included? Well, maybe I can encourage my aunt or my friend Julia to start making them for me... (especially the persimmon pudding and Hoppin' John, please).
Recommended.
But this book isn't just intended to be for people who cook. It's pretty much for people who love food and people who love hearing other people's stories. And on all three counts, it succeeds admirably. Blue Plate Special is a book for people who enjoy food and for people who appreciate good stories well told.
And that's honestly the best part of the book for me. Kate Christensen has had an amazing life and she shares her stories in brief vignettes (sometimes accompanied by recipes, sometimes not). It's something that's completely prevalent, the fact that so many of our own stories involve food somehow. Holidays, obviously, but generally even celebrations or spending time with friends, right? This book celebrates that.
And as for the recipes included? Well, maybe I can encourage my aunt or my friend Julia to start making them for me... (especially the persimmon pudding and Hoppin' John, please).
Recommended.
February 2, 2015
I'll admit it seems kind of peculiar to accuse the author of a memoir of being rather self-centered, but, there you have it -- Ms Christensen strikes me as a selfish, neurotic, narcissistic drama queen who discovered her "allergy" to gluten as a way to be trendy. (No judgment for those who truly suffer from celiac disease.) I imagine her next memoir will be an equally shallow treatment about how she left her latest love; oh, woe, is her. Now, all that said, many of these traits are exactly what make for incredibly great writers of fiction. So maybe I should at least try one of her novels. And, of course, good for her -- she wrote a book, and I'm just reacting to one. One final positive note: It was neat to read about the foods of my childhood as she described them; I did feel we were kindred spirits when it came to that.
August 29, 2013
Man, I really wanted to like this book more than I did. I love, love, loved The Great Man and recommended it to all of my friends. Alas, Blue Plate Special fell flat for me. I wanted far more food descriptions and recipes than the book offered, though admittedly Christensen's culinary descriptions pick up toward the end of the book. And while I appreciate a good anti-hero, Christensen mostly just struck me as depressed. Her life is filled with wonderful adventures–a year as an au pair in France! an education at Reed College and then the Iowa Writers' Workshop! yearly vacations to a private summer home!—that she seems to gloss over in favor of recalling her deep-seated unhappiness (and epic wine drinking). I guess I'll just stick with her fiction.
November 21, 2017
I enjoyed the descriptions of food. I got a great sense of the author’s emotional connection to different meals. The author has had many struggles and seems honest in this retelling.
There were lots of little things in this book that annoyed me and it added up to me disliking it as a whole. There were a few paragraphs that were simile after simile. She spends a chunk of time describing her gluten intolerance in detail only to mention heaps of pasta dishes in Italy in the very next chapter. Not enough of the food descriptions I enjoyed.
This book just didn’t deliver and I was happy to be finished with it. I didn’t care for it, but some seem to love this read so perhaps read a few different reviews before picking it up.
There were lots of little things in this book that annoyed me and it added up to me disliking it as a whole. There were a few paragraphs that were simile after simile. She spends a chunk of time describing her gluten intolerance in detail only to mention heaps of pasta dishes in Italy in the very next chapter. Not enough of the food descriptions I enjoyed.
This book just didn’t deliver and I was happy to be finished with it. I didn’t care for it, but some seem to love this read so perhaps read a few different reviews before picking it up.
November 9, 2013
It was okay, slower at first and got interesting towards the end. It was depressing and not at all compelling. It was NOT about food, necessarily. Was expecting food (and her love of it) to play a bigger part. Very egocentric. Probably won't read another one of her books.
November 23, 2019
For me, this memoir was a yes and a no. It’s a highly readable book in both good and bad senses (sometimes compelling, at other times too light). The story at its heart – a childhood in the shadow of domestic abuse and its reverberations into adulthood – was powerful. I was very interested in Kate’s parents as characters, in fact more in them than in her, and this was my main problem with the book. I felt that as the protagonist Kate was towering over all the other characters in the book while she wasn’t actually the most interesting one among them. I wanted much more insight and characterisation into the people in her life, and independently from her, but everyone – even her mother who occupies a major place in the story – were almost always discussed only in relation to the narrator, not as people with their own dimensions. The book seemed like a bird’s overview of Kate’s life rather than in-depth analysis of the main theme. There were many stories about her in the middle in particular that I simply didn’t need to know; stories that were there simply because they happened and not for narrative/thematic reasons. I’d have preferred a more selective picking and choosing of what was relevant to the central drama. The theme of food felt somewhat forced, and then there was also the theme of various places important to the narrator that seemed to belong better to the narrative actually, but the book wasn't framed in this way. So as a whole the book didn’t work for me, but there were many powerful vignettes there that interested me as well as a moving narrative of a difficult marriage at the end that was quite compelling. So, indeed, yes and no…
June 14, 2017
I really wanted to like this book. It's well-written, and includes several of my favorite subjects.
And of course, food. But. . .
I just couldn't make myself care. About any of the people, or even most of the events. something about the writing, or the perspective of the author; I can't really put my finger on it.
And of course, food. But. . .
I just couldn't make myself care. About any of the people, or even most of the events. something about the writing, or the perspective of the author; I can't really put my finger on it.
July 22, 2013
I won this book as a giveaway on Goodreads through Doubleday.
I do feel as if I'm cheating a bit reading Christensen's memoir before reading any of her other works, since she is best known for six novels that proceed this, her first non-fiction work. Blue Plate Special is a memoir of Christensen's life from childhood through present day, which uses food as a central theme and unifier. Kate Christensen, who was called by her first name, Laurie, growing up, was raised in Berkeley and later Arizona. Her mother raised Laurie and her two sisters largely as a single mother after leaving her abusive husband. From childhood, Laurie was creative and loved to read, write, and eat large quantities of homemade food. From adolescence on, her life has been very nomadic, and filled with writing, food, and a turbulent love life.
I was reeled in to Christensen's story from the very first page, where a two year old Laurie is eating a breakfast of soft-boiled eggs and toast when her mother innocently asks her father for help before he leaves for work: "My father paused in the kitchen doorway, looking back at us all at the table. Something seemed to snap in his head. Instead of either walking out or staying to help my mother, he leaped at her and began punching her in a silent knot of rage" (9). Christensen's writing is compelling and frank. She unabashedly illuminates both faults of herself and others and keeps the reader's attention with her intriguing life story. I love the image Christensen paints of her life from hitchhiking through Europe to life in New York City.
Although I loved this book, I felt like the summary and title oversells the role food plays in this book. Although this memoir does include many references to food, it is not a book about food. Rather, Christensen uses the memory of the first time she ate a particular food or what dish she was eating on repeat at a particular time in her life (such as the bean burritos she made constantly while in college) as a jumping off point to unpack memories and describes her life at a particular point. Eating and preparing food is a great hobby and love of Christensen, and as such, they must figure as a large theme in her memoir. However, anyone reading this book expecting a heavy and definitive look at food will be disappointed. I did enjoy that each part of the book ended with a few of the author's favorite recipes. My favorite part of this is that she included a description of why the recipe is important to her or when she used to eat it, such as minestrone soup. Christensen says she "would throw this quick, cheap, easy soup together on cold nights after I got home from my temp jobs" (257). Having a personal connection to each recipe added depth, and certainly made me curious to try her recipes.
Though food is only one of many interests in Christensen's life as described in her memoir, the epigraph by M.K. Fisher sums up her life's relationship to food: "Often the place and time help make a food what it becomes, even more than the food itself."
I do feel as if I'm cheating a bit reading Christensen's memoir before reading any of her other works, since she is best known for six novels that proceed this, her first non-fiction work. Blue Plate Special is a memoir of Christensen's life from childhood through present day, which uses food as a central theme and unifier. Kate Christensen, who was called by her first name, Laurie, growing up, was raised in Berkeley and later Arizona. Her mother raised Laurie and her two sisters largely as a single mother after leaving her abusive husband. From childhood, Laurie was creative and loved to read, write, and eat large quantities of homemade food. From adolescence on, her life has been very nomadic, and filled with writing, food, and a turbulent love life.
I was reeled in to Christensen's story from the very first page, where a two year old Laurie is eating a breakfast of soft-boiled eggs and toast when her mother innocently asks her father for help before he leaves for work: "My father paused in the kitchen doorway, looking back at us all at the table. Something seemed to snap in his head. Instead of either walking out or staying to help my mother, he leaped at her and began punching her in a silent knot of rage" (9). Christensen's writing is compelling and frank. She unabashedly illuminates both faults of herself and others and keeps the reader's attention with her intriguing life story. I love the image Christensen paints of her life from hitchhiking through Europe to life in New York City.
Although I loved this book, I felt like the summary and title oversells the role food plays in this book. Although this memoir does include many references to food, it is not a book about food. Rather, Christensen uses the memory of the first time she ate a particular food or what dish she was eating on repeat at a particular time in her life (such as the bean burritos she made constantly while in college) as a jumping off point to unpack memories and describes her life at a particular point. Eating and preparing food is a great hobby and love of Christensen, and as such, they must figure as a large theme in her memoir. However, anyone reading this book expecting a heavy and definitive look at food will be disappointed. I did enjoy that each part of the book ended with a few of the author's favorite recipes. My favorite part of this is that she included a description of why the recipe is important to her or when she used to eat it, such as minestrone soup. Christensen says she "would throw this quick, cheap, easy soup together on cold nights after I got home from my temp jobs" (257). Having a personal connection to each recipe added depth, and certainly made me curious to try her recipes.
Though food is only one of many interests in Christensen's life as described in her memoir, the epigraph by M.K. Fisher sums up her life's relationship to food: "Often the place and time help make a food what it becomes, even more than the food itself."
September 11, 2013
This was pretty addictive. While it is billed as a food memoir or "autobiography of my appetites," and even includes recipes at the end of each large section, I thought that the tie-ins to food were, every once in a while, a little bit forced. In one sense, I did not mind this, because it was pretty compulsively readable as a memoir about one interesting woman's life. It didn't need a theme, at least for me, in order to be interesting; it already was. On those odd occasions when food was introduced unnecessarily (or so it seemed to me), it nagged at me. But these were rare.
The one thing that shocked me by the end was that Christensen never talked, at least in any depth, about her relationship with alcohol. And there is a LOT of booze in this memoir. She is pretty clear that she spent certain periods of her life pretty much soused all the time and also depressed. But the good times, the bad times, and the completely ho-hum in-between times are pretty much all served up with two or three bottles of wine. It got to the point that I started to wonder if we might be heading toward recovery and AA by the end. For someone as lucid and critical of self as she is in this memoir, it was surprising to me how little she stopped to talk about the role of alcohol in her life, both as an "appetite" and as a supporting character (driving force?) in many of her ups and downs. She talks a lot about wanting to be masculine as a young woman and not ever wanting to admit weakness; I started to wonder if this hard-drinking bravado were part of that.
The one thing that shocked me by the end was that Christensen never talked, at least in any depth, about her relationship with alcohol. And there is a LOT of booze in this memoir. She is pretty clear that she spent certain periods of her life pretty much soused all the time and also depressed. But the good times, the bad times, and the completely ho-hum in-between times are pretty much all served up with two or three bottles of wine. It got to the point that I started to wonder if we might be heading toward recovery and AA by the end. For someone as lucid and critical of self as she is in this memoir, it was surprising to me how little she stopped to talk about the role of alcohol in her life, both as an "appetite" and as a supporting character (driving force?) in many of her ups and downs. She talks a lot about wanting to be masculine as a young woman and not ever wanting to admit weakness; I started to wonder if this hard-drinking bravado were part of that.
February 22, 2014
Memoir of the author Kate Christensen, with all her trials and tribulations growing up, and a constant backdrop of food, meals, and cooking.
I pretty much binge-read this book over the last few days. Even though I've never read this author before, I was engrossed in her life story. Probably because a) I love the memoir as a genre (making me some kind of voyeur, I suppose?) and b) like Christensen, I'm food-obsessed. The food part, although I thought it was interesting and appreciated it as an unusual twist to the typical memoir format (I thought this would be a lesser book without it), felt kind of random at times. This was really a book about a woman with a somewhat difficult childhood, which affected her adult life greatly. Having said that, the food elements did help relax the seriousness of the subject matter at times.
Then again, nothing all that horrible happened to Christensen. She did have an absent father and an emotionally unavailable mother, but nothing catastrophic. At times I almost felt like I was serving as her therapist by reading this book. All in all though, she is a great and compelling writer and for me this book was hard to put down. At first, from its title, I thought it was going to be some kind of country, folksy, feel-good book, but it was much deeper and much more than that. It was interesting reading about all the points in her life where she sabotaged herself and sent herself flying off the rails, and her own theories as to why she did this.
I pretty much binge-read this book over the last few days. Even though I've never read this author before, I was engrossed in her life story. Probably because a) I love the memoir as a genre (making me some kind of voyeur, I suppose?) and b) like Christensen, I'm food-obsessed. The food part, although I thought it was interesting and appreciated it as an unusual twist to the typical memoir format (I thought this would be a lesser book without it), felt kind of random at times. This was really a book about a woman with a somewhat difficult childhood, which affected her adult life greatly. Having said that, the food elements did help relax the seriousness of the subject matter at times.
Then again, nothing all that horrible happened to Christensen. She did have an absent father and an emotionally unavailable mother, but nothing catastrophic. At times I almost felt like I was serving as her therapist by reading this book. All in all though, she is a great and compelling writer and for me this book was hard to put down. At first, from its title, I thought it was going to be some kind of country, folksy, feel-good book, but it was much deeper and much more than that. It was interesting reading about all the points in her life where she sabotaged herself and sent herself flying off the rails, and her own theories as to why she did this.
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