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Summary
Summary
"A sweet and savory treat." -- People
"An impressive feat of narrative jujitsu. . . that keeps readers turning the pages too fast to realize just how ingenious they are."-- The New York Times Book Review , Editor's Pick
"Kitchens of the Great Midwest is a terrific reminder of what can be wrested from suffering and struggle - not only success, but also considerable irony, a fair amount of wisdom and a decent meal."--Jane Smiley, The Guardian
As seen on The Skimm : "Warning: this will make you hungry. . . . You won't be able to put it down. And it will up your kitchen game."
Kitchens of the Great Midwest, about a young woman with a once-in-a-generation palate who becomes the iconic chef behind the country's most coveted dinner reservation, is the summer's most hotly-anticipated debut.
When Lars Thorvald's wife, Cynthia, falls in love with wine--and a dashing sommelier--he's left to raise their baby, Eva, on his own. He's determined to pass on his love of food to his daughter--starting with puréed pork shoulder. As Eva grows, she finds her solace and salvation in the flavors of her native Minnesota. From Scandinavian lutefisk to hydroponic chocolate habaneros, each ingredient represents one part of Eva's journey as she becomes the star chef behind a legendary and secretive pop-up supper club, culminating in an opulent and emotional feast that's a testament to her spirit and resilience.
Each chapter in J. Ryan Stradal's startlingly original debut tells the story of a single dish and character, at once capturing the zeitgeist of the Midwest, the rise of foodie culture, and delving into the ways food creates community and a sense of identity. By turns quirky, hilarious, and vividly sensory, Kitchens of the Great Midwest is an unexpected mother-daughter story about the bittersweet nature of life--its missed opportunities and its joyful surprises. It marks the entry of a brilliant new talent.
Author Notes
J. Ryan Stradal is the author of Kitchens of the Great Midwest which made the New York Times Best Seller List 2015.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (6)
School Library Journal Review
Stradal's novel chronicles the young life of Eva Thorvald, beginning with her birth to a woman who would rather become an expert sommelier than a mom and who leaves with no forwarding address. Her father dies shortly after of a heart attack. The narrative then moves on to three key moments in Eva's life: in her preteens, her teens, and her 20s. Each section ends in a suspenseful way and many of the characters reappear in later sections. Eva's teen years are crucial to the other parts of the narrative. Her arrival in a new high school brings romance with a boy who is awkward but smitten. Meanwhile, she works in a restaurant to help her ailing uncle and guardian pay the bills. In the restaurant, she learns about food and acquires a reputation for her marvelous palate, preparing the way for Eva's 20s, when her dinners, given as private reserved affairs, bring her fame and satisfaction. There is much to love here for readers of all ages. Stradal's gentle humor pokes fun at such Midwest customs as calling any cold food a salad and satirizes a few young foodies, too. The plot moves quickly, and the unusual and stimulating structure allows readers to think about what may have happened during the gaps. And teens will enjoy seeing a girl who cannot finish high school nevertheless become a success. VERDICT A very special novel most readers will hate to see end.-Karlan Sick, Library Consultant, New York City © Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Stradal's debut novel centers on Eva Thorvald, the daughter of a chef and an aspiring sommelier, who has food in her DNA-a fact that remains irrefutable even after her mother abandons her and her father dies when she is an infant. Raised by relatives in Wisconsin and Iowa, Eva grows into a tall, awkward girl obsessed with restaurant kitchens, chili peppers, and local cuisine, which she folds into extremely popular and sought-after fine-dining experiences. Eva's story unfolds more like a short story collection than a novel as each vignette, told from the point of view of a different character, reveals another facet of her personality. The unifying (though slightly trite) conceit is that each character introduces an ingredient that lands on Eva's tasting menu in the final act. Stradal's neither a food snob nor exclusively a comfort-food advocate: he lovingly skewers Lutheran church-basement cuisine and locavore foodies alike as he tracks Eva's path to success. Certain bits of information occasionally feel deliberately withheld for dramatic effect (though they are eventually revealed), and Eva's superstar status at the end of the story feels like a little bit of a stretch, but Eva herself is a compelling, deliciously flawed character. Agent: Ryan Harbage, Fischer-Harbage Agency. (July) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
A young girl navigates a tumultuous childhood to become one of the top chefs in the country in this delicious debut from Stradal. Eva Thorvald is just a baby when her mother leaves and her father dies. But despite never really knowing her chef father and sommelier mother, Eva finds out that cooking is in her blood. In elementary school, she grows hot peppers in her closet. In high school, she gets an internship at the nicest restaurant in town. Eventually, she grows into one of the most respected, most adventurous chefs in the country, running an ultrahip pop-up supper club with a yearslong waiting list. Although Eva's tale is interesting enough on its own, the true excitement comes from Stradal's decision to tell it in interconnected stories from different points of view. The reader sees Eva through the eyes of her father, her boyfriend, a rival, a cousin, and more. Piecing together Eva's life from these patchwork stories fleshes out her world and makes the ending feel especially rewarding. Delightful details, like a fiercely competitive county-fair bake-off with a category just for bars, inject the book with some Midwestern realness. Food and family intertwine in this promising debut that features triumph, heartbreak, and even recipes. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
The day chef Lars Thorvald becomes a father is the happiest day of his life. The day his wife, Cynthia, leaves him for Hutmacher's restaurant's new sommelier is his worst. Raising baby Eva on his own is a challenge, sure, but one Lars embraces with typical foodie fervor, focusing on providing only the freshest, locally sourced, and made-from-scratch meals for Eva. Unfortunately, the pressure of single parenting does him in, and orphaned Eva is left in the care of her Dorito-devouring aunt and uncle. But those early years with Lars leave their mark, and Eva grows up to be the country's hottest young chef. Her concept of $5,000-a-plate pop-up dinners set in exotic locations garners her fans, mystique, and attention, including that of the mother who abandoned her, who wrangles a ticket to Eva's dinner in hopes of finally getting to know her child. If food is love, then Stradal's tasty tale is the ultimate homage to the merits of the culinary experience, with just a soupçon of überfoodie-culture satire thrown in for a bit of zest.--Haggas, Carol Copyright 2015 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
BEYOND WORDS: What Animals Think and Feel, by Carl Safina. (Picador, $18.) Humans have been far too anthropocentric when trying to understand the mental experiences of other animals, Safina, a marine conservationist, argues here. His observations on grieving elephants in Kenya, endangered wolves in Yellowstone National Park and a harmonious whale society in the Pacific Northwest build the case that other species are capable of nuanced thought and emotion. KITCHENS OF THE GREAT MIDWEST, by J. Ryan Stradal. (Penguin, $16.) This bighearted novel is partly a culinary biography of Minnesota, tracing how traditions (lutefisk) give way to fads, and partly a sendup of food. The story's central character, Eva, is born into a food-obsessed family and soon displays preternatural gifts of her own, using cooking to overcome a childhood tragedy. THE SEVEN GOOD YEARS: A Memoir, by Etgar Keret. Translated by Sondra Silverston, Miriam Shlesinger, Jessica Cohen and Anthony Berris. (Riverhead, $16.) The author, an Israeli, has built a fan base devoted to his fantastical short stories. In this, his first nonfiction book, Keret focuses on the stretch of time between his son's birth and his father's death, and considers the absurdities of fatherhood and family life. DAYS OF AWE, by Lauren Fox. (Vintage, $16.) The death of Isabel's close friend in a car crash sets off a period of tragedies; a year later, Isabel and her husband have divorced, her adolescent daughter has grown aloof and a number of her other relationships have become unmoored. Isabel reconsiders her identity throughout this novel as the relationships that once defined her fall away, but her rapport with her mother remains at her emotional core. THE WEATHER EXPERIMENT: The Pioneers Who Sought to See the Future, by Peter Moore. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $16.) If forecasts and precise weather reports are now a ubiquitous part of life, in the 1800s, the premise was improbable - even laughable. Moore, a Briton, tells the story of the 19th-century scientists and sailors who set out to show that data could help predict future meteorological patterns, and he includes the American contributions to the field. THE GAP OF TIME, by Jeanette Winterson. (Hogarth Shakespeare, $15.) In this novel, the inaugural title in a series of books "covering" plays by Shakespeare, Winterson ad apts the story of "The Winter's Tale" to a con temporary, post-financial-crash setting. Leo, a paranoid hedge fund manager in London, sends his newborn daughter to New Bohemia, a facsimile of New Orleans, after a fit of jealous rage. MIDNIGHT'S FURIES: The Deadly Legacy of India's Partition, by Nisid Hajari. (Mariner/ Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $15.95.) Hajari's account focuses on the months preceding the 1947 split between India and Pakistan, probing one of the conflict's central questions: How did two countries with so many commonalities end up as bitter rivals?
Library Journal Review
After her mother leaves and her father dies, Eva Thorvald is taken in by her uncle and aunt. In grade school Eva grows her own habenero peppers, presses the oil, and sells it to a Mexican restaurant. She forgoes college for haute cuisine and comes up with a business model that makes her a rock star among foodies: she hosts high-priced banquets in unexpected places (a Kansas prairie, a Pennsylvania farm, the South African veldt) featuring locally sourced ingredients. The dinners have years-long waiting lists. Along the way people come into Eva's life and never completely leave: a high school boyfriend, a Minnesota baking-contest winner, her bohemian cousins, and eventually her mother, Cynthia. Though Cynthia has never reached out to Eva, she manages to score a pair of tickets to the dinner in Pierre, SD. Narrators Amy Ryan and Michael Stuhlbarg have pitch-perfect Minnesota accents. VERDICT Fans of Garrison Keillor and Michael Perry will delight in this funny and poignant tale. ["Foodies and those who love contemporary literature will devour this novel": LJ 6/15/15 starred review of the Pamela Dorman hc.]-Nann Blaine Hilyard, Winthrop Harbor, IL © Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.