Last House: Reflections, Dreams, and Observations, 1943-1991

by M.F.K. Fisher

Along with To Begin Again and Stay Me, Oh Comfort Me, this anthology was the last project M.F.K. Fisher worked on before her death in 1992. Last House presents a frank, wry, and revealing portrait of Fisher's life, her loves, and herself. 304 pp.

Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction, Food, Food Writing, Essays, Biography Memoir, Literature

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher was a prolific and well-respected writer, writing more than 20 books during her lifetime and also publishing two volumes of journals and correspondence shortly before her death in 1992. Her first book, Serve it Forth, was published in 1937. Her books deal primarily with food, considering it from many aspects: preparation, natural history, culture, and philosophy. Fisher believed that eating well was just one of the "arts of life" and explored the art of living as a secondary theme in her writing. Her style and pacing are noted elements of her short stories and essays.

Reviews

[Marilyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

She wrote some of the best prose in America.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Last House: Reflections, Dreams and Observations, 1943-1991 is M.F.K Fisher's final anthology covering events in her life. Deeply personal and fiercely honest, this collection of reflections and remembrances present snapshots of her relationships with her father Rex, her sisters Norah and Anne, her daughters and numerous colleagues, editors, and acquaintances. Her depictions of trips she made throughout these years are colorful images of the joy, solace, and grace experienced.
M.F. K Fisher shares her experiences with aging including her deterioration with Parkinson's Disease with candor that is devoid of self-pity and yet filled with a noir like humor. While not exactly an enjoyable read it is a riveting journey through a singular tangle of emotions that she faced as her life slowed down. Last House: Reflections, Dreams and Observations is a poignant and not to be missed book for fans of this author and a rich introduction for those new to her works.

[patty · Rating 4 out of 5]

MFKF's last book. When I finished it, I was sad she had to suffer before moving on to the next realm. The book is a compilation of short bits, stories, remembrances.

[Jerry · Rating 5 out of 5]

I always find it a little difficult to assign a rating to a collection of short stories or essays. An average? The median? The best? Or, as is more likely, the last few items read, because I prefer to read only a selection or two a night rather than plow through several.

Still, this was difficult to put down. I’ve had Fisher on my list of authors to look for since reading Endless Feasts. Unlike most of her books, this has little to do with food, but it is, as befits an author who has translated Brillat-Savarin, about the good life—and the end of a good life. This is her last book, she knew it would be her last book, and she wrote explicitly to chronicle the last years of life, the wait for the next:

… I am not dawdling. I am waiting. I am waiting to move on, which at my age means dying. I wonder about how best to do it, most neatly. I must now wait, to learn more.—“The Difference Between Dawdling and Waiting”, 1985

While food certainly still makes up some of her life, much of the enjoyment has gone; this isn’t presented as a sad thing or an annoying thing or a bitter thing, as the cover blurb might imply. It’s just another stage of life. There are only two recipes, both presented only as inline descriptions:

p. 21 Frederika’s Mother’s Greek Pilaf
p. 243 M.F.K Fisher’s Spinach Paste

At this age, the topics tend to be things that older people worry about—how difficult it is to read, how hard it is to write legibly or communicate effectively. Whether they’re getting enough sleep.

I know that sleep is a gentle thing. It falls like dew and all that, but I have often wondered why it is so important to people to feel that they can sleep eight hours without turning over, or eight hours the minute their heads hit the pillow, or eight hours without a dream. All this has always been silly to me.—“Sleep”, 1986

That’s one of the longest essays in the book. It’s as much about her own habits of sleep as it is about the lack of independence and the need to treat people as widgets as it is about sleep itself. Oh, you don’t sleep the way we expect everyone to sleep? We’ll trick you into taking these pills.

As is also often the case in reading memoirs, I was surprised at how small the world really is. I really shouldn’t have been in this case: in an early (1959) essay she mentions Philip Wylie completely in passing; I know Wylie as a science fiction author, but he had a very wide influence on the world and people of letters, also showing up, as I recall, in Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex or her The Mandarins. (My recollection is that it was the former, but it makes more sense for it to have been the latter.)

It was probably a little the way a woman who has long wanted a child feels when she knows that at last she has conceived. The thing had finally happened, and it was rich with promise.

[False · Rating 4 out of 5]

The great essayist Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher wrote this last volume, starting in 1943 and then in the 1990's, when Parkinson's Disease began to make it impossible for her to speak, as a sort of summary of her writings. This book gives a lot of insight into MFK Fisher's life when she returned to the US from Europe, married again after her first husband's death. Some of the writing is familiar, subjects visited before such as her life in Europe, and some is quite new, if all you've read are her classic essays in "Serve it Forth", for example.

The Last House is one designed for her in Glen Ellen, California. In this house, she writes honestly of the ravages of age, incapacity, fright and regrets. It's brutally honest, as all her writing is. If you love the works of this author, this is a must-read.

[Halli Villegas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent short creative non-fiction pieces. Brought to mind Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking and some of Colette's recites. I look forward to reading her other work, though she is a gastronome and food writing doesn't always excite me. This book was about her life and aging, but meals and food played an important part in it.

[Gabrielle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interested series of writings. More like personal notes. Not a book everyone will enjoy, but it is the right book for me at this time in my life. I will keep it and probably read it again in a few years. (At this point, I am donating any books that I know I'll never read again.)

[Diane B · Rating 3 out of 5]

I appreciated the collection as a curated gathering of moments, like memories bubbling up onto the surface.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read about Ms. Fisher in the latest issue of Edible Austin and she sounded really interesting. She is primarily a "food writer," which is what I wanted to read by her. A food book, or one of her memoirs, but the library only had this book in right now. It's basically a collection of journal entries spanning almost 50 years. I really enjoyed it, but I get the feeling it's intended primarily for "fans." It made me want to read her other stuff that much more, though. I especially enjoyed the later entries dealing explicitly with aging and the subsequent loss of physical and mental capacities. It's too bad more people don't (or can't) write more engagingly about that topic.

[Jlnpeacock Peacock · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have delighted in this book. It is lovely to view the world through this highly interesting woman. Her reflections on so many aspects of life is enriching. I realize that not everyone may be 'of the age' to appreciate what she is saying. If you are young, wait a few years so you can understand what is really being said.

[Dvora Treisman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I actually read this years ago and don't remember it well. Time to reread? What I do remember is that I thought Fisher was a little bit full of herself and I didn't like it as much as most of her other books about food and France.

[Leslie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very honest take on growing older!