A review by chelsea_not_chels
Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking: A Memoir of Food and Longing by Anya von Bremzen

3.0

I liked this, but not as much as I thought I would. It is not nearly as food-oriented as the title and beginning of the book would have you think. Now, the Soviet Union certainly went through long periods of famine for a variety of reasons, from siege to politics, I still thought there would have been more linkage with the thought of food than their was. This is more a family history than anything else, and then von Bremzen shoves some recipes in at the end to strengthen the connection with food. It's an interesting take on Soviet history, from someone who was born and spent most of her formative years in the USSR before moving the US, and her humor and snark were certainly welcome, but looking for that connection with food (or even the lack of it) sometimes felt exhausting, particularly in some of the portions that were longer to begin with, such as the section on her grandparents.