mondyboy 's review for:

How to Cook a Wolf by M.F.K. Fisher

4.0

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It’s a cookbook. Except it’s not really. I mean, I’m sure the recipes made some sense to the people who read How To Cook a Wolf back in 1942, but nearly eight decades later and all a little bit messy and hard to follow. (To be fair my cooking skills, until recently, we’re godawful. I had no idea how to boil water (Fisher’s chapter on the subject, is both hilarious and informative), but even the best self-made cook would struggle with some of Fisher’s directions). The charm of the novel is more the argument that runs through it; that just because War makes things scarce doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy yourself - if you’re smart, lucky and accept that the sensual is important even during the worst of times. It’s a timely argument given Lockdown 2.0. Clearly we’re not dealing with ration books (though toilet paper hoarding was a thing...) but Fisher, with a great deal of humour (and apparently a whole slew of made up anecdotes) reminds us that life is always worth living even when it’s a complete cluster-fudge. And the book is just a hoot to read. Fisher does sardonic beautifully, and the new edition from Daunt includes her 1951 annotations which are not only insightful (in the sense of how much things can change in less than a decade) but laugh out loud funny. A great lockdown read. Just don’t follow her recipe for making soap. It may kill you. No. Seriously. Don’t