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4.49 AVERAGE
4.49 AVERAGE
*review update almost a year after finishing- i still think about this memoir almost daily. i cannot believe that so many people are sleeping on it. *
Original Review:
I just noticed that I have, unintentionally, been reading many books on grief and loss lately. I find books with these topics, albeit heartbreaking, to be so raw and powerful. With that said, here is yet another recent book I have read that deals with grief and loss. But it’s more than just that. It’s the story of an extremely courageous woman daring to live her own life.
Fatima was a Pakistani woman who left every one and every thing she knew in Pakistan to travel to New York and follow her dream to become a chef. She appeared on the Food Network’s Chopped and Top Chef and became an extremely successful executive chef: an incredible feat for someone only in their late twenties. At the height of her career she was diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer and soon passed away. This book is her story written from her death bed.
Included in this memoir is a foreword by Fatima’s mother, Farezeh, who also narrates her own story throughout the book. We learn of her life and upbringing in 1960-1970s Pakistan, including the death of her father and the arranged marriage to Fati’s father. As you progress through to part two and to Fatima’s adult life you gather different perspectives of the same situation, seen through Fatima’s and also through Farezeh’s eyes, which I really enjoyed.
The prose and the honesty, from both Fatima and her mother, is heart wrenching, entrancing and beautiful.
I didn’t want to set it down but was forced to because, well, life calls. So if I have any advice going in to this book, it is to save it for a rainy day or perhaps a sick day or a holiday where you can read through the entire book in one sitting.
One of my favorite reads of the year. One of my favorite reads ever. I cannot recommend this enough. If you read one memoir this year let this be the one.
Original Review:
I just noticed that I have, unintentionally, been reading many books on grief and loss lately. I find books with these topics, albeit heartbreaking, to be so raw and powerful. With that said, here is yet another recent book I have read that deals with grief and loss. But it’s more than just that. It’s the story of an extremely courageous woman daring to live her own life.
Fatima was a Pakistani woman who left every one and every thing she knew in Pakistan to travel to New York and follow her dream to become a chef. She appeared on the Food Network’s Chopped and Top Chef and became an extremely successful executive chef: an incredible feat for someone only in their late twenties. At the height of her career she was diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer and soon passed away. This book is her story written from her death bed.
Included in this memoir is a foreword by Fatima’s mother, Farezeh, who also narrates her own story throughout the book. We learn of her life and upbringing in 1960-1970s Pakistan, including the death of her father and the arranged marriage to Fati’s father. As you progress through to part two and to Fatima’s adult life you gather different perspectives of the same situation, seen through Fatima’s and also through Farezeh’s eyes, which I really enjoyed.
The prose and the honesty, from both Fatima and her mother, is heart wrenching, entrancing and beautiful.
I didn’t want to set it down but was forced to because, well, life calls. So if I have any advice going in to this book, it is to save it for a rainy day or perhaps a sick day or a holiday where you can read through the entire book in one sitting.
One of my favorite reads of the year. One of my favorite reads ever. I cannot recommend this enough. If you read one memoir this year let this be the one.
dark
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
emotional
medium-paced
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
I first came across Fatima on her season of top chef. She was tenacious and more than a little pig-headed based on how they edited the show. I read this book because it was honestly a gut punch to learn that she had died of cancer. She was so young. I can't help thinking, if she had chosen to make her career in a country with universal health care could it have made a difference?
This book takes you through her short life from soup to nuts. Or from dahl to sushi. I listened to this on audio because I knew I wouldn't get through it as a physical book. As it is I spent months listening to the audio. It contains both her perspectives and her mother's on key events from her life.
This book takes you through her short life from soup to nuts. Or from dahl to sushi. I listened to this on audio because I knew I wouldn't get through it as a physical book. As it is I spent months listening to the audio. It contains both her perspectives and her mother's on key events from her life.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Cancer, Child abuse, Death, Drug use, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Rape, Terminal illness, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma
emotional
inspiring
slow-paced