Poet of the Appetites: The Lives and Loves of M.F.K. Fisher - Hardcover

Reardon, Joan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0865475628 ISBN 13: 9780865475625

Publisher: North Point Press, 2004

Synopsis

In more than thirty books, M.F.K. Fisher forever changed the way Americans understood not only the art of eating but the art of living. Whether considering the oyster or describing how to cook a wolf, she addressed the universal needs "for protection, food, love." Readers were instantly drawn into her circle of husbands and lovers, artists and artisans; they felt they knew Fisher herself, whether they encountered her as a child with a fried-egg sandwich in her pocket, a young bride awakening to the glories of French food, or a seductress proffering the first peas of the season.

Oldest child, wife, mother, mistress, self-made career woman, trail-blazing writer--Fisher served up each role with panache. But like many master stylists, she was also a master mythologizer. Her portraits and scenarios were often unrecognizable to those on whom they were based, and her own emotions and experiences remained cloaked in ambiguity.

To retell her story as it really happened is an important enterprise, and Joan Reardon has made the most of her access to Fisher, her family and friends, and her private papers. This multifaceted portrayal of the woman John Updike christened the "poet of the appetites" is no less memorable than the personae Fisher crafted for herself.

About this title

About the Author:

Joan Reardon is the author of four previous books, including M.F.K. Fisher, Julia Child, and Alice Waters, which was nominated for a Julia Child Award. She lives in Lake Forest, Illinois.

Review:

"Poet of the Appetites really is the last word on M.F.K. Fisher--a story that is both meticulously researched and beautifully told. All those who are passionate about America's most famous food writer will take hours of pleasure in this intimate yet honest account of Fisher's life on two continents." --Darra Goldstein, editor of Gastronomica: The Journal of Food and Culture

"'She was not who I thought she was,' Reardon says at the outset of this remarkably clear eyed biography of a woman and a writer who seduced readers by the subterfuges of fiction disguised as confession. Untangling truth from fiction in the life of a compulsive writer who declared, 'Nobody knows what I think I am,' is a heroic task for a biographer, but Reardon's story of this masterful storyteller reads like a compelling mystery, which you can’t put down until the very last page, and then you're sorry it's over." --Betty Fussell, author of My Kitchen Wars

"When I met her towards the end of her life, I knew Mary Frances was an extraordinary person but did not realize how extraordinary until I was swept away reading this magnificent biography. You experience the sensation of traveling through her life right alongside her. And how can anyone resist a woman who loved drinking Gigondas but detested her own 'God Damned Poise'?" --Kermit Lynch, author of Adventures on the Wine Route

"M. F. K. Fisher was such a bewitching narrator of her own life that any biography might seem beside the point. In fact, the reverse is true. Joan Reardon has given us the very different, far more complicated, sometimes tragic private person, who yearned for the same sort of intimate connection with lovers and daughters as she found in writing, food, and place, but only very rarely managed to get it. Reardon evenhandedly but sympathetically traces a life that was astonishingly successful and often radiant with the joy of living, even as it was relentlessly plagued with doubt, paralysis, and half-effective battles with personal demons. I put down Poet of the Appetites feeling moved, perplexed, and as shaken as if touched by a live electric
fs20wire." --John Thorne

Praise for Joan Reardon's M.F.K. Fisher, Julia Child, and Alice Waters:

"This account of intermingled sensibilities, often quite mouth-watering, should have something of value for anyone who eats." --Chicago Tribune

"Informative and fun. As with a Child recipe, God is in the details, and Reardon has provided plenty of them . . . Her prose is clear and balanced." --The Boston Sunday Globe

"Here is a wonderful book about three American women who have had enormous effect upon the food we eat and the ability of people to get a good meal in our country . . . This is a fine tribute to three remarkable women--and a mouth-watering description of what they accomplished." --Sunday Star-Ledger (Newark)

"Reardon . . . serves up a savory biographical repast about three women who revolutionized the culinary arts in America." --Library Journal

About this edition

• Publisher: North Point Press
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0865475628
• ISBN 13: 9780865475625
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 528