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Mastering The Art Of Soviet Cooking: A Memoir Of Food And Longing (2013)

by Anya von Bremzen(Favorite Author)

3.94 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0307886816 (ISBN13: 9780307886811)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Crown

review 1: When I mentioned the name of this book to a Russian emigrant, he laughed and said "Soviet cooking? Was there such a thing?" That's exactly one of the points that Anya von Bremzen makes—the huge discrepancy between propaganda and reality, and between what the Soviet leadership ate and what the general populace ate. Each chapter focuses on a decade of the Soviet Union and outlines not just the food of the era, but also the lifestyle of the people and the personal story of the author and her family. This memoir gives a very personal look at what it was like for an average citizen to live under the black pall of communism. The author and her mother fled to the US when Anya was ten, and Anya's decade of near starvation seems like a natural lead-in to her ultimate career as a ... moreJames Beard Award-winning food writer.
review 2: I have never been so happy to finish a book. I wanted to like this memoir. But, I spent the majority of this book confused. There wasn't any real timeline (the author leapt back and forth through time) and with my limited knowledge of Russian history I was just lost most of the time. Maybe this book is great and I am just stupid. I think it would have helped if I hadn't listened to the audio version and had read it myself. Then, at least, I would have had a fighting chance at keeping up with the Russian names and places a little better. less

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