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A review by okiecozyreader
From Scratch: A Memoir of Love, Sicily, and Finding Home by Tembi Locke
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
A beautiful and tender memoir to be savored.
When I purchased this book, I just thought it was a book of love and Sicily and food. I didn’t realize it was also a memoir of loss from her husband of cancer. When I began it and realized it was a true story, I was surprised. I haven’t ever been it Italy, and it just amazed me - this young girl going with friends (for school), to Italy and finding this kind of love. It is an amazing story. It does jump around in timelines, and at moments, I had to think about where I was, but I felt like it also worked.
—-
“Poetry would save me… In that moment, I realized why I had returned here to this island of stone: I needed a kind of salvation. I desperately wanted, even for a moment, to shake off the ever-present sadness and fill my spirit.” P117
“Because even in grief, motherhood made me show up. It was my salvation then and had been from day one.” P119
“I had come to think of my grief as a character in my life, something I had to get to know, befriend l, make peace with because it was bigger than anything I had ever known. It pulled me down and sometimes propelled me forward.” P188
“Those Sicilian almonds were nothing like the nuts in six-ounce bags… in the United States. They were a singular act of natural goodness. They reminded me that a thing can be tender or hard, depending on conditions and care, intended or otherwise.” P182
“I couldn’t help but feel that I, too, was being stirred and molded and shaped again. A grief metamorphosis… I had begun to filter out the unneeded parts of my life. Life was separating my curd from my whey. … cheese making, especially making a wheel of infused pecorino, is a lot like dealing with grief. It requires time, labor, attention. It also needs to be left alone for a time. It requires gentle hands but also strong intentions.” P222
“Saro’s love, his life, and his loss had forged me, softening me to life and strengthening me in the broken places.” P305
When I purchased this book, I just thought it was a book of love and Sicily and food. I didn’t realize it was also a memoir of loss from her husband of cancer. When I began it and realized it was a true story, I was surprised. I haven’t ever been it Italy, and it just amazed me - this young girl going with friends (for school), to Italy and finding this kind of love. It is an amazing story. It does jump around in timelines, and at moments, I had to think about where I was, but I felt like it also worked.
—-
“Poetry would save me… In that moment, I realized why I had returned here to this island of stone: I needed a kind of salvation. I desperately wanted, even for a moment, to shake off the ever-present sadness and fill my spirit.” P117
“Because even in grief, motherhood made me show up. It was my salvation then and had been from day one.” P119
“I had come to think of my grief as a character in my life, something I had to get to know, befriend l, make peace with because it was bigger than anything I had ever known. It pulled me down and sometimes propelled me forward.” P188
“Those Sicilian almonds were nothing like the nuts in six-ounce bags… in the United States. They were a singular act of natural goodness. They reminded me that a thing can be tender or hard, depending on conditions and care, intended or otherwise.” P182
“I couldn’t help but feel that I, too, was being stirred and molded and shaped again. A grief metamorphosis… I had begun to filter out the unneeded parts of my life. Life was separating my curd from my whey. … cheese making, especially making a wheel of infused pecorino, is a lot like dealing with grief. It requires time, labor, attention. It also needs to be left alone for a time. It requires gentle hands but also strong intentions.” P222
“Saro’s love, his life, and his loss had forged me, softening me to life and strengthening me in the broken places.” P305
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Cancer
Minor: Death of parent