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aditurbo's review against another edition
5.0
Fantastic, funny, fascinating, full of emotion - a wonderful idea, masterfully executed. This book looks at the political, historical, social and cultural changes that went over the Soviet Union during the 20th century (and the early 21st century), by following the changes in Russian food culture and offering an engaging family story - that of the author's. Bremzen is an expert on food, certainly, but is also a first-rate storyteller. She created here an unforgettable read that will make you laugh and cry, and very, very hungry.
abookishtype's review against another edition
4.0
For the past two weeks, I’ve been having Kathleen Gati read me to sleep with Anya von Bremzen’s Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking: A Memoir of Food and Longing. Von Bremzen was born in Moscow in the early 1960s and left in 1974 with her mother, emigrating to New York. Since the day she left, von Bremzen has been chasing memories of her Soviet youth through food. Proust’s madeleine is her touchstone. In this memoir, von Bremzen writes the entire history of her post-Revolution family from the 1910s through the fall of the USSR. Like many food memoirs I read, I wish that this one came with scratch and sniff sections or a gift basket that came with the copy of the book I ordered. (I listened to the book on Scribd and decided that I needed a print edition for my library.) This book is delicious...
Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type.
Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type.
poetryrose's review against another edition
5.0
A gastronomic walk through 20th century Russia. A truly rewarding read.
mavenbooks's review against another edition
3.0
Interesting at first, but it wasn't quite the food memoir I was expecting from the descriptions. It was nice to have the historical context, but this often overtook the more interesting stuff about food and the author's experiences and family, and I felt like I had to slog through a lot of dull history to get to the (dwindling) good stuff.
occupationleaf's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
More like this! Stories of cultural history based around food- I love this. If you're interested in personal tales of Soviet life, or of history of food and how it connects people, pick this up.
annatmreads's review against another edition
2.0
Couldn't finish this, despite a lot of great person nostalgia and interesting premise. Way too heavy on the personal memoir detail and not enough food/cooking for my tastes.
veromatuscinova's review against another edition
5.0
velky pribeh. o narode, krajine,historii, ludoch, tuzbach, aj o jedle. chcem citat vsetky knihy, ktore napisala autorka
msantolla's review against another edition
4.0
I really enjoyed this book. I realized as I read that I knew next to nothing about Soviet Russia, and I loved the journey through history, threaded together by family and food. This book took me forever to read because I kept looking things up on my iPhone while I read because I wanted to learn more. I do think the story and the author's voice really came alive when the story transitioned from being a retelling of her family history to a first person account of her own childhood experience in Russia and her return to Rodina (the motherland). Now I need to decide if I want to try to tackle the Kulebiaka recipe in the back.
mara_miriam's review against another edition
3.0
Part personal memoir & family stories, part cultural & political history, and part cook book that emphasizes the multi-layered meaning of food. I appreciated this book so much, the familial relationships, the cultural history that is uncomfortably resonant given current events, and the elaborate dishes that would never cross my own plate.