I picked up this book after seeing an ad for it in the New Yorker; a memoir about a young woman's life in France and her love of food...having just finished My Life In France I was still hungry. Trail of Crumbs by Kim Sunee delivered on the romantic just as Julia Child's book did. But it was filled with bittersweet and sometimes downright depressing imagery as well. The end of most chapters contained at least one recipe corresponding to the remembered time and place just described.
Ms. Sunee was adopted by a New Orleans couple after being abandoned on the streets of South Korea with just a handful of crumbs for three days. Like other books I've read about an adopted child, Ms. Sunee is never quite happy, and doesn't fit in. She and her sister are the only Asian children in school and she always feels uncomfortable around her parents. She does find solace with her grandparents, especially her grandfather, from whom she learns the secrets of Louisiana cooking. As soon as she's old enough to leave home, she does. She spends a semester abroad in France as her first travel alone. She wants to become a poet, a writer and learns French. She is soon able to translate for work.
At a young age she meets men more advanced in years and experience, but being seemingly fearless, Ms. Sunee follows them, looking for her own history. At 23 she falls in love with a wealthy, nearing 40 year old French businessman with an adolescent daughter. Ms. Sunee is soon "adopted" into this family with various roles: lover, step mother, social hostess, home keeper and cook. She only feels truly comfortable cooking and provides the reader for recipes such as spring pea salads and La Daube Provencale, wild peaches poached in Lillet Blanc and Figs roasted in Red Wine. Some of her recipes are memories of a past both real (Monday red beans and rice, Crawfish bisque) and imagined (quick fix kimchi).
As the years pass she feels more and more unsettled, especially as her partner Olivier establishes a life for her more and more. She ultimately has to make decisions that women twice her age have a hard time making, and her naivete and inexperience push through her strong facade. While I respected her for her bravery, I was conscious of her seeming lack of appreciation for a life she had, whether she truly wanted it or not (probably an inherent trait in a young 20 something).
I liked this book, but I was hopeful for more sophisticated self reflection, a la Eat, Pray, Love. Still, it was an enjoyable read, one that took the gloom out of a bleak Boston Sunday. 4/5 netflix stars.
No comments:
Post a Comment