Never eat your heart out

Proust was not the only writer to understand the deep connections between food and memory. In this remarkable book, as keenly lyrical about its author's life as it is hilarious and down-to-earth about American food, Judith Moore recollects the strange, good, and terrible dramas of her life and places them in memorable culinary frames. So much of intimate life has to do with food! - preparing, cooking, relishing, and anticipating it, and, of course, recalling its special flavors and intensity. Here are the mud pies she made as a toddler; the food she still associates with teenage sex; the first celebratory dinners planned as a young bride; the monthly potluck supper in a typical American parish; the food she taught her daughters to prepare; the sumptuous glories she concocted during the year she became an adulteress and was happier than ever; the fruits and vegetables she "put up" to restore her sense of wholeness and recreate in the dark of winter her family's summer pleasures. It is not just that we remember the past when we savor the tastes of the present - we reimagine ourselves for the future, too.