I was drawn to it because in the spring I'll be doing a workshop at Isothermal College and my subject is the use of food to enhance one's prose. (Think of the eating scene in Tom Jones--or the antebellum sumptuous meals of Gone With the Wind reduced to Scarlett's postbellum gnawing on a raw turnip--or was it a carrot or a radish? I can't remember and my online sources don't agree. Anyway, you get the point.*)
Dryzal hit upon a wonderful structure for her memoir--twenty-six vignettes about different foods, arranged chronologically and alphabetically.
From Al Dente in which we learn about her Italian grandmother and the importance of family rituals; through Nova, the story of her summer as the lone Catholic at a Jewish camp, her first kiss (at this same camp) and her on-going preference for Jewish men; to Zucchini Blossoms (fried) where we come full circle back to her grandmother and her grandfather-- the gardener who grew the zucchini. And a small reflection on the ineffable sense memories stored in these twenty-six vignettes.
Drzal serves forth an absolutely delicious memoir-- well stirred and seasoned with wit, wisdom, and nostalgia.
*It was a radish -- I checked.
