Entertaining Disasters: A Novel

by Nancy Spiller

In print, FW, the unnamed freelance Food Writer of Nancy Spiller’s sardonic debut novel, Entertaining Disasters, lives high on the food chain in the heady realm of L.A.’s culinary journalism scene. She waxes poetic about her hip home gatherings, thinly veiling the identities of her Hollywood guest list. But in reality, FW’s been inventing the dinner parties she writes about because social paralysis sets in at the very thought of a real guest in her fabulous—or is it shabby?—hillside home.

Enter the glossy food magazine editor, new in town, who wants an invitation to one of her bashes, and the panic-stricken journey from fantasy hostess to reality bites is on.


Entertaining Disasters—at turns whimsical and deeply affecting—chronicles the struggle FW faces in the week before she hosts her first real dinner party in ages. At the same time, her estranged sister threatens to drop by, her husband takes off, and her house implodes. In the way of Nora Ephron’s Heartburn, Spiller’s book is filled with the fabulous culinary lore and delicious-sounding recipes that have made FW’s writing such popular foodie mania. Now all she has to do is somehow bring this fantasy world into workaday reality.

Genres: Fiction, Chick Lit

328 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2009

About the author

Nancy Spiller is a writer and artist living in Los Angeles. A fourth generation Californian and native of the San Francisco Bay Area, she was a staff writer at the San Jose Mercury News and Los Angeles Herald Examiner and editor at the Los Angeles Times Syndicate. Her articles and essays have appeared in numerous publications, including the Los Angeles Times, Salon.com, Cooking Light, and Town & Country. She is the author of Entertaining Disasters: A Novel (With Recipes) and Compromise Cake: Lessons Learned from My Mother's Recipe Box and teaches in the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program.

Reviews

[Allison · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book surprised me more than anything. Initially I thought it was going to be fairly predictable, however, it ended up being written more like a memoir. Actually, a confessional seems to be the better word. It was witty, raw, and honest. Throughout the novel the narrator comes across as disconnected, especially with her husband, who she refers to as "Somebody" or "Someone." Yet, the farther into the book the reader goes, the more it is shown that her disconnection is merely survival. A way to avoid the past.

As the reader goes on, they find that the novel is not about her ill fated dinner party, but about life growing up with a mother who is mentally unstable.

Spiller uses other literary sources as references to the story she creates in this book. She uses Charlotte Perkins Gilman's famous short story "Yellow Wallpaper" in which the woman goes crazy. Also, there is a chapter in which her narrator talks about the Sargasso Sea, and that made me think of Jean Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea. That story acts as a precursor to Jane Eyre, giving the back story to Rochester and his wife who is mentally ill.

I loved how cooking was the one constant in the narrator's life and in the middle of all her "disaster" it was something that was exact and that she could make sense of. Also, I thought the double meaning of the title really gave it something extra. Once finished with the book, I thought of Elizabeth Bishop's "One Art" :

The art of losing isn't hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.

Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.

Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
places, and names, and where it was you meant
to travel. None of these will bring disaster.

I lost my mother's watch. And look! my last, or
next-to-last, of three loved houses went.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.

I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,
some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasn't a disaster.

--Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture
I love) I shan't have lied. It's evident
the art of losing's not too hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.

[Mcwaguespack Waguespack · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up at the library without knowing anything about it or its author and was pleasantly surprised. I love being surprised by a good book. The novel spans only a week, when the narrator, who writes a cooking and entertaining column based mostly on fabricated dinner parties, must finally prepare to host a real dinner party. This week of anxieties, reflections, sharp observations and humor, as well as recipes that reflect her subject matter and perspective, is interspersed with flashbacks from her troubled childhood, spent with a schizophrenic mother, who used to be a good cook. The narrator starts cooking for herself as a child to try to achieve a sense of comfort and family, something she is still seeking, even while married to a man she calls "Somebody." Some of it is heartbreaking but it's told bravely and wisely. There's also some feminist commentary, references to "The Yellow Wallpaper," 1950's culture, etc. that added some nice layers to the story. I would recommend it.

[Elizabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked this up at the library and, as is my habit, read the first couple of pages to see if they grabbed me. They did:

[...] I haven't given an actual dinner party in nearly ten years. This despite my having written about them for countless magazines and newspapers during that same period, as if I had been graciously throwing them on a regular basis as effortlessly as others breathe.
   The truth is, I am a food writer giving my first dinner party in a decade after inventing them for the page all that time. (p.2)

As soon as I got home, I read a little further. I was really intrigued by the following:

I have nothing to say, but a greater need than most to say it. (p.5)

It spoke to me. Because that IS me.

And yet, as I got further in, I came closer and closer to aborting. As I learned more about them I found I just didn't care about the characters.

Most of the recipes seemed quite ordinary or entirely ridiculous. The only recipes that seem interesting enough to try are the red onion and roasted garlic marmalade and the opera cake with the oh so witty preparation instructions. (I really do want to see if it's possible to make the opera cake! It sounds fabulous.)

I considered giving directions for making this cake, but the idea of anyone constructing it in their home kitchen for other than professional reasons brought tears to my eyes. It is as time-consuming and potentially unsatisfying as attempting to stage Tosca in your living room. Don't do it. Instead, find a bakery with a good version, then treasure the discovery on the rare occasion in which you should indulge in this inspiring creation. (p. 47,48)

Yet, I persevered. Every so often there would be little rewards:

Recipes. I once followed them exactly, blindly, putting my faith in the author, known or not. I collected them freely, like rubber bands or those little cards with extra buttons and yarn that come with every piece of clothing you buy, believing fully that I would someday get around to using them. Like the newspaper clipping for tortilla soup that's anchored to the refrigerator door beneath an Edvard Munch The Scream magnet. It symbolizes the thousands of recipes that beg me to save them each day. If I dare to rescue one, the clipping screams, every recipe will be there for years. Years!. And for years I will feel guilty for not making them. (p.137)

Then I got to

A whole year now since her mother had passed, and here it was Christmas again (p.184)

Once again, I vowed to just stop reading. I HATE that euphemistic idiom "passed". Are we really incapable of saying "died" or admitting that our family, friends and yes, even we, are mortal? And, since when do people "pass" when they die? It's my suspicion that there is a fight there. After all, our will is to live and to keep living.

But it was so close to the end of the book. And I was curious to find out if it was suddenly going to get better. And it did. For a moment or two:

   I open the refrigerator door [...] I see the tub of crumbled glue cheese I want to use for Saturday's salad and remember to check the expiration date. BEST IF USED BY - I turn the container in my hands, searching for the words. I don't want it to be any bluer than it should safely be, so I don a pair of reading glasses to see if that helps me located the official claims of its continued viability.
   If the government can require manufacturers to include this data on packaging, why can't it also make them put it in the same place on every package, and do so in lettering that is large enough to be read without the aid of glasses? IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK? By the time of my own expiration date, I will have spent several months, if not years, standing in the market aisles, scanning labels for this basic information. (p281, 282)

And then, in keeping with the rest of the novel, the brief moment fizzled away. I breathed a sigh of relief when at last I reached page 311 and saw "ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS".

Remind me not to get sucked into reading Nancy Spiller's next novel.

[Lily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don't be fooled by the title, this novel is not a superficial story about a foodie's faux pas hosting dinner parties, but a unique creation by the author to weave fiction into memoir. Through creating this memoir, the narrator, who is unnamed, carries the reader along the journey of her life. Paragraphs of the past are interwoven with the present preoccupation of preparing for a dinner party. We are allowed to see how the circumstances of the past, the pain of a mentally ill family member, the isolation from everyone but her dog and husband, and passion for cooking has molded and shaped the narrator into the obsessive, doubtful, fraudulent food writer she has become. But this isn't just a story of the past, but a tale of a woman who discovers the deeper meaning to life--life that she's avoided for over a decade. Spiller's unique method of storytelling lets us witness the food writer answer her own questions about love, life, perfection, and the importance of family.

[Michelle P · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was really surprising to me. It is a story of a woman with a family history of mental illness who used making food as a way to cope with her childhood, and then on into her life. It is difficult sometimes to decide if maybe she has a mental illness, too, as the book is written from her perspective.

I enjoyed the sarcasm and humor and even the unusual family dynamics presented throughout, but felt that after the story was developed the author kind of stopped the story abruptly.

[Kristi Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

Okay...I cannot say enought great things about the "fiction with food genre" - I absolutely love reading a novel that combines recipes and soul food into the storyline. Spiller's novel is one of the best yet I have read in this newly discovered genre.

Now, I must read "Julie and Julia" before the movie comes out!

[Rose]

An interesting combination of "foodie" novel aspects combined with a pretty intense unfolding story of a highly dysfunctional family. Overall,I really liked it.

[Joanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Before reading this book, I was reminded of my favorite Christmas movie "Christmas in Connecticut".
The one with Barbara Stanwyck, not the horrible remake with Dyan Cannon. But Entertaining Disasters was very different. I enjoyed it.

[Rebecca Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved Nancy Spiller’s novel — a richly-layered tale of food and family, seasoned with recipes. FW, an unnamed LA food writer, is famous for her descriptions of intimate and coveted dinner parties, but these fetes are imaginary: She makes them up. When a visiting food critic invites himself to one of these parties, cracks appear in FW’s tenuous façade. As she prepares for what promises to be a disaster, she is forced to dip into a past that threatens to consume her. FW’s mother, once a great cook, descends into madness; the family collapses; and the child FW attempts to care for herself ─ through cooking. Luscious, keen, and infused with emotional intelligence, Entertaining Disasters is a marvelous exploration of artifice and truth. It speaks to the hungers, betrayals and loneliness within families and the ways we attempt to feed the empty spaces inside.

[Holly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this would be a fun, frothy romp about dinner parties gone awry or something like that but, it turned out to be a fictitious memoir that reads a lot more seriously. The main character is a food writer who has become successful writing about all the fabulous dinner parties she has. The catch is that she really doesn't host these dinner parties at all...they are all creations of her mind. As she finds herself confronted with the task of actually planning and pulling off a real dinner party, she explores all her fears and emotional baggage; most of which is courtesy of the family life she has experienced. There's a lot of self-doubt, pathos, wry humor and downright charm in this book. Not a "must-read" by any stretch of the imagination though a pleasant afternoon's read.

[Debbie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I couldn't finish this book. It took me 11 days to get to page 100 and I thought I would rip my eyes out while reading it. It was so boring. It wasn't bad and it wasn't good; it was just boring. I wasn't interested in the character from the beginning, who by the way doesn't have a name. She's just known as FW (Food Writer) and her husband is known as Somebody. I tried to continue reading b/c the recipes at the end of the chapters were pretty good, but I decided if it didn't get interesting by page 100, I was abandoning the book. Well, you see the result. If someone gets thru the book, let me know how it ends.

[Ivy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Nothing happens in this book. Literally nothing. The unnamed narrator spends the entire novel agonizing over one dinner party as she ricochets through ever more obscure culinary tangents. The recipes are unrelated to the book and unexecutable. Spiller writes a witty sentence, which might sucker you into thinking this will be an entertaining "romp," but don't be fooled. It's one of the most static books I've ever read.

[Barbara · Rating 2 out of 5]

Plot Summary: Los Angeles-based freelance food journalist “FW,” who built her career writing stories about her sumptuous but fictional dinner parties, agrees to host a bigwig food editor, setting her into a panic. The novel chronicles the week leading up to the dreaded event, juxtaposed against her dysfunctional family background.

Appeals: fictional memoir; food writing; dysfunctional families; novel with recipes

[bumblethunderbeast · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book started off fairly strong--quirky narrator and fun food details. Unfortunately that quirky narrator went from engaging to absolutely neurotic. I just didn't want to read anymore of her ranting, the details of her strange marriage with Somebody or her mother's painful story. After 136 pages, the narrator was one of those dreaded friends that you avoid at all costs. Despite the interesting food details that Spiller provides, I could read no further.

[Stacey · Rating 1 out of 5]

Right. So if someone can explain to me why this is a book. Or what the point is. Or how I can get back the last 309 pages of my life...

To give this one star is generous. I did not like one thing about this book - not the writing, not the story, not the characters, not the main character's life, not the recipes. It was pretty much a waste of time with no point, at least that I could find.

[Jan · Rating 1 out of 5]

The main character is annoying, self-centered, so I didn't like the parts about her current day life issues. But I did like the blasts into her childhood and her crazy mother and how the family coped. The recipes at the end of each chapter were fun to connect to the story. But it is a far cry from LIke Water for Chocolate or Glass Castle.

[Jane · Rating 2 out of 5]

I loved the beginning. Laughed out loud. But when the story got into sounding like a fake memoir with the family history it got so boring for me. I tried to keep reading it but it was so much work to stay with it that I quit after about 100 pages. If she kept to the dinner party story I might have really liked it.

[M · Rating 2 out of 5]

Depressing beyond belief. There were moments of humor but the narrator comes from a terrible childhood that depresses the heck out of the reader. I like the title - don't feel it conveys what the book is actually about. It ain't entertaining I can tell you that. Glad to be done with it. Don't recommend it. I gave it 2 stars b/c it's well-written, I just didn't enjoy the subject matter.

[Gaye Larsen · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you have ever been the least bit afraid to entertain you will relate to this story. Whatever can go wrong will. I still think the author should have given specific directions for Opera Cake for those of us wishing to bave he recipe!

[Victoria · Rating 2 out of 5]

Couldn't get through this book. The cooking language is not one I am completely familiar with. It was hard to understand at times. Maybe I'll try again later when I have more time on my hands.

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

This looks like fun, can't wait until it gets here. It wasn't quite what I was expecting, but I did enjoy it.

[Kelly · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was okay, I don't suggest it, but it was okay.

[Julia]

funny...sort of sad.

[Jodi · Rating 1 out of 5]

Self indulgent claptrap. Yet another whiny discourse on alienation, this one from the ignored youngest daughter. Even the recipes are boring.

[Wulffgang · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting--the story of a magazine columnist for food stories who supposedly holds fancy dinner parties, but as it turns out she doesn't actually do so, just writes about them.

[Reneeantrosio · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read about halfway through this book and had to keep putting it down. It was depressing and finally I just quit for good and took it back to the library.

[Michelle]

I made it to page 25 and returned it to the library. I really thought I would like this, but NOT.SO.MUCH.

[Mum · Rating 1 out of 5]

strange

[Cassie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wasn't impressed.

[Erin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Didn't finish it. Lost interest.