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daumari's review against another edition
5.0
ugh I once again forgot to put in the right edition (and I thought I did, but maybe this was before I deliberately entered ISBN numbers) so my page numbers are off.
anyway, Twitty is a lyrical author, and here he has crafted a gorgeous, personal narrative that feels the weight of historical trauma and a yearning for what was lost due to institutional slavery obscuring names, places, and lineages. This knowledge (and book) is derived from his crowdfunded Southern Discomfort tour, seeking out the old foodways and digging into his own ancestry with genealogists and historians. The family tree in the book goes back generations, but this is the achievement of hard digging, as many slave records merely give first names, if at all as part of the dehumanizing process.
The structure felt rambly, which I initially disliked, but in the author's note at the end, he says if he could've given a linear timeline he would've considered it, but instead the genre-shifting narrative that revealed itself to him as he learned about the ancestors is what he arrived at, and it makes the story all the more stronger. At the end of most chapters are relevant recipes, though once again I did not try to cook any of them.
Between genealogists and a DNA test, Twitty finds he's about a quarter Caucasian, and there are several points in his great^3+ grandparent line where forcible assault introduced white men into his family tree, and this is explored through visiting both the Bellamy plantation and a few weeks in Ireland/England (though for the latter, he finds more familiar culinary DNA between the foodstuffs of west Africa to the South than England).
I initially started reading this last spring, but had to return it. I resumed at the beginning of 2019 when a library hold came back. Might reread earlier chapters too.
anyway, Twitty is a lyrical author, and here he has crafted a gorgeous, personal narrative that feels the weight of historical trauma and a yearning for what was lost due to institutional slavery obscuring names, places, and lineages. This knowledge (and book) is derived from his crowdfunded Southern Discomfort tour, seeking out the old foodways and digging into his own ancestry with genealogists and historians. The family tree in the book goes back generations, but this is the achievement of hard digging, as many slave records merely give first names, if at all as part of the dehumanizing process.
The structure felt rambly, which I initially disliked, but in the author's note at the end, he says if he could've given a linear timeline he would've considered it, but instead the genre-shifting narrative that revealed itself to him as he learned about the ancestors is what he arrived at, and it makes the story all the more stronger. At the end of most chapters are relevant recipes, though once again I did not try to cook any of them.
Between genealogists and a DNA test, Twitty finds he's about a quarter Caucasian, and there are several points in his great^3+ grandparent line where forcible assault introduced white men into his family tree, and this is explored through visiting both the Bellamy plantation and a few weeks in Ireland/England (though for the latter, he finds more familiar culinary DNA between the foodstuffs of west Africa to the South than England).
I initially started reading this last spring, but had to return it. I resumed at the beginning of 2019 when a library hold came back. Might reread earlier chapters too.
eilnarfparker's review against another edition
4.0
A lot of Goodreads reviews of this book talk about how the layout and language were hard to follow, and I just want to point out that this is a memoir, not a history book, and a journey, not a linear path. It is true that this is a book about Michael W. Twitty, but at its core it is about the experience of so many others. He uses his own history as a lens- to create a focus in so broad a topic. I thought the writing was inventive and beautiful (almost poetic), and I learned so much about how various edible plants, gardening practices and cooking techniques have traveled around the world and combined with one another to create what we now know as Southern Food (primarily via the slave trade and colonialism). This book is as much about storytelling as it is about food and history. It is about the importance of storytelling in filling in the gaps, and about how those stories can lead to discovery. Personally I loved the memoir format and the inclusion of Twitty's personal emotions and recipes. If you are looking for a clearcut textbook on African American Culinary History, though, this isn't the book for you.
katieoxee's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
slow-paced
2.5
This book could have been something amazing. But it suffers from ineffective editing. The author has true moments of wit, humor, insight, and enlightenment, but these moments are overshadowed by endless pages of DNA report summaries and the repetition of fruits and vegetables that enslaved people grew throughout the south. His voice shined most brilliantly when discussing his ancestors’ stories and his interaction with the food and stories of the south. His narrative would have benefited from a more sequential order of events, but, instead, the reader is left reeling after introductions to different ancestors at different times without little sense of timeline order.
dasbooch's review against another edition
5.0
The best way to look at this book is seeing it as a memoir that highlights his personal story, that of his family (including those he never met but whose lives he was connected with through story) and a story of a people. This is a style that other memoirs I loved are written in, but he makes it truly unique by using the medium of food to explore his about past, part of the African American experience in the south and how their influence had often been ignored or whitewashed over, both in the culinary world and in general. He thus creates a deeply personal masterpiece. While it can be a bit dense in stories and material, and I am not crazy about the structure of the book, he was very effective in telling his story and illustrating why his story was so important to tell. I look forward to trying the recipes he included as well.
elemomi's review
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
3.5
There’s a lot to process in this book, and it’s so densely packed with information that I think it lends itself to reading better in print than in audio. Incredibly informative, and I don’t think I’ll look at a plate of southern food the same ever again.
abaugher's review against another edition
5.0
Amazing combination of the history of black american cooking and the story behind the food. If you don't like learning about the racist roots of the US past, and how it has grown into a big ugly misshapen form of life, this book is not for you. If you want to learn even more of the real history, I strongly encourage the reading, and re-reading, of this eye-opening account.
agnewjacob120's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
slow-paced
4.5
Excellent journey through the history of food and the key role of Africa and African Americans in developing Southern food. Sometimes a tad flowery in prose for my taste, but that is a personal taste