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Betty Fussell

Forfatter af The Story of Corn

16+ Works 783 Members 12 Reviews 2 Favorited

Om forfatteren

Betty Fussell is the author of ten previous books, including The Story of corn and My Kitchen Wars. A contributor to the New York Times, The New Yorker, Saveur, Food Wine, Gastronomica, and other publications, she has also lectured widely on food history. Western born, she lives in New York City.
Image credit: Flickr user TEDxManhattan

Værker af Betty Fussell

Associated Works

The Mushroom Feast (1975) — Forord — 150 eksemplarer
Best Food Writing 2009 (2009) — Bidragyder — 86 eksemplarer
A Slice of Life (2003) — Introduktion — 61 eksemplarer
Best Food Writing 2000 (2000) — Bidragyder — 60 eksemplarer
Best Food Writing 2002 (2002) — Bidragyder — 58 eksemplarer

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This was an alright biography. While it was interesting to learn about Mabel, the author kept going back and forth with timelines. Each chapter started with her, she just had to put herself into each darn chapter. Just different from other biographies I’ve read.
 
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Crystal423 | 2 andre anmeldelser | Mar 23, 2020 |
The life and times of American Beef
 
Markeret
jhawn | Jul 31, 2017 |
My Kitchen Wars is a dense, furious and absorbing read by food journalist Betty Fussell. Smart and talented, she lived in the shadow of a"great man" in academia during the 1950's. She went from a loveless childhood to a difficult marriage and using cooking metaphors (The Invasion of Warring Blenders) she describes the skirmishes and outright battles that occurred between the sexes in post WWII middle class America regarding women's roles. As expected, Ms Fussell threw herself into making a home for her family by cooking sumptuous meals, decorating her large and historic home and taking care of the children yet Ms Fussell also wanted a career of her own. The cultural constrictions were formidable and the obstacles were real including, according to the author, a husband who mocked her ambitions and talent. So Ms Fussell cooked and cooked; she cooked like many middle and upper-middle class women in her generation. She cooked luxurious and elaborate meals which she describes in great, mouthwatering exhaustive detail and she learned about other food cultures through travel and reading. She also had a large social life with similar couples and had several affairs, as did her husband. What captured me about this book was the detailed narrative of her relationship to food and its role in sometimes subordinating and also freeing her (her articles are her entry into public life), the author's clear description of academic with its patriarchal bias and her longing to engage in a public intellectual life despite her gender. The descriptions of her aspirations and how she fought to satisfy them were moving; sad and furious and spirited. At the same time it is clearly Ms. Fussell's story with little attempt to help us understand her husband and why there was so little genuine connection and what part she played in this. I also thought that there was a whiff of homophobia in her describing her husband's gay affair as the reason for the end of the marriage as opposed to the many affairs that they both had all along. Despite this, I am thankful that Netgalley allowed me to review this compelling book for an honest review.… (mere)
 
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Karen59 | 6 andre anmeldelser | Mar 15, 2015 |
The kitchen is the heart of the home. It's the place where everyone ends up during a party. It's where the family gathers together. But the kitchen can be a battleground too, reflecting the state of the family. In Betty Fussell's memoir, My Kitchen Wars, the noted food writer and cookbook author takes on her early life and long marriage through the lens of food, kitchen tools, and cooking.

Fussell was born in the late 1920s. Her life and the food coming out of the kitchens of her homes, from childhood with a depressed mother and later an unpleasant stepmother, to her marriage to noted historian and author Paul Fussell, mirror the seismic changes that took place in society. From uninspired, rather tasteless meals meant only to provide sustenance to elaborately conceived and executed parties overflowing with gourmet offerings and loosened sexual mores to a more simple and satisfying fare, Fussell uses kitchen utensils to chart a personal and social history. She cooks up a memoir of her own sensual awakening after a puritanical childhood and a marriage fraught with strife.

After escaping her stepmother's strict and priggish household, she marries Paul Fussell, despite early intimations that there will be problems in their marriage. Initially, she behaves just as a good faculty wife is expected to act, hewing to accepted gender roles, performing as the good little woman, throwing parties and entering into the kitchen competitions that seem to be the sole outlet of the women of the time. She and Paul spar even then though, as Betty's desire to be more, to engage herself intellectually like he is doing, something so long denied to her, makes him feel threatened. Through her food writing, she starts to achieve a feminist awakening, desiring to be more than just Paul's support or secretary for his celebrated books. Eventually earning her PhD in English and finding her own writing voice, she does break out of the prison of the kitchen while still celebrating the essence, skill, and importance of the place, its contents, and food.

Fussell is clearly passionate about food, demonstrating a true foodie transformation over the years. Her narrative voice is distinctive but a bit distant as she shares savory tidbits from her life. She doesn't flinch from telling the unsavory bits either, straightforwardly discussing her own long affair, the heavy drinking and shifting mores of the time, unveiling the pettiness of the private academic life, discussing the sexual politics and the frustrating restrictions on women in the 50s and 60s, taking (perhaps deserved) potshots at Paul, and exposing his sexual predilections. Some of this could come off as salacious but it is so matter-of-factly presented that it doesn't. There are some hints of depressing pretentiousness in the writing but mostly what comes across is the awakening of a smart, resilient woman who fights her kitchen wars and ultimately gains her independence through the surprising power of words and food.
… (mere)
½
 
Markeret
whitreidtan | 6 andre anmeldelser | Feb 13, 2015 |

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Værker
16
Also by
7
Medlemmer
783
Popularitet
#32,506
Vurdering
½ 3.6
Anmeldelser
12
ISBN
24
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