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A review by cocoonofbooks
The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister
4.0
The premise of this book is so simple that I'm still surprised I enjoyed it so much, but perhaps its simplicity is what makes it so elegant and personal. When you first arrive at a gathering of strangers -- in this case, a cooking class -- you bring your own backstory, emotions, and current worries with you, while knowing nothing of anyone else's. What you bring colors what you're looking for from the experience and what you take away from it.
Each chapter of this book represents one person in the group who attends Lillian's monthly cooking class, including Lillian herself. Each time, we get to see what happens in that month's class, interwoven with that person's life experiences. And as the months progress, not only does each person grow and learn from their experiences in the class, but they begin to reach out and form relationships with one another -- teaching each other, caring for each other.
What makes this book beautiful is Bauermeister's ability to capture with language exactly how certain moments feel. Unfortunately, this is marred somewhat by her heavy use of metaphors and similes -- every single thing is compared to something else, and it becomes distracting after a while. If she could cut out the constant comparisons and instead let her descriptions of smells, tastes, and emotions speak for themselves, it would be perfect.
I didn't expect to become so emotionally invested in the characters' lives, but it's easy to do so when their stories are so familiar -- the new mother, the struggling teenager, the widower, the old woman losing her memory. Rather than being stock characters, they are recognizable as people in one's own life. Their stories are unique enough to add dimension, but universal enough to be familiar.
I read this as an audiobook and enjoyed Cassandra Campbell's presentation very much. She manages to give each character a distinct voice that is maintained throughout, and (at least to my American ears) she succeeds at the variety of accents demanded by the text -- Italian, Mexican, French, Chinese.
This book offers plenty of simple life lessons -- it may prompt you to call your grandmother, kiss your spouse, or (most likely of all) take a cooking class. But it is unlikely to leave you unmoved.
Each chapter of this book represents one person in the group who attends Lillian's monthly cooking class, including Lillian herself. Each time, we get to see what happens in that month's class, interwoven with that person's life experiences. And as the months progress, not only does each person grow and learn from their experiences in the class, but they begin to reach out and form relationships with one another -- teaching each other, caring for each other.
What makes this book beautiful is Bauermeister's ability to capture with language exactly how certain moments feel. Unfortunately, this is marred somewhat by her heavy use of metaphors and similes -- every single thing is compared to something else, and it becomes distracting after a while. If she could cut out the constant comparisons and instead let her descriptions of smells, tastes, and emotions speak for themselves, it would be perfect.
I didn't expect to become so emotionally invested in the characters' lives, but it's easy to do so when their stories are so familiar -- the new mother, the struggling teenager, the widower, the old woman losing her memory. Rather than being stock characters, they are recognizable as people in one's own life. Their stories are unique enough to add dimension, but universal enough to be familiar.
I read this as an audiobook and enjoyed Cassandra Campbell's presentation very much. She manages to give each character a distinct voice that is maintained throughout, and (at least to my American ears) she succeeds at the variety of accents demanded by the text -- Italian, Mexican, French, Chinese.
This book offers plenty of simple life lessons -- it may prompt you to call your grandmother, kiss your spouse, or (most likely of all) take a cooking class. But it is unlikely to leave you unmoved.