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A review by lovesarahmae
Love, Loss, and What We Ate: A Memoir by Padma Lakshmi
5.0
[a:Padma Lakshmi|4543|Padma Lakshmi|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] may be a pretty face, but she is no fool. She opens this memoir with the dirt everyone was hoping for: intimate details of her failed marriage to [a:Salman Rushdie|3299|Salman Rushdie|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1440718419p2/3299.jpg], the infamous and brilliant writer. It was a torrid affair, start to finish, but wonderfully these are not even the most interesting chapters of [b:Love, Loss, and What We Ate: A Memoir|25816693|Love, Loss, and What We Ate A Memoir|Padma Lakshmi|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1449997146s/25816693.jpg|45626006]. Lakshmi's story is that of an immigrant child, shuttling between India and New York or LA. It is a story of single motherhood and matriarchy. It is the dirty tell all that many hoped for out of the pen of a model turned television star. And it is the food memoir that everyone who pairs book-club and dinner parties was waiting on.
I expected behind the scenes footage of her public life- Top Chef, the food network, cook books, maybe even stories from within that often whispered about marriage to Rushdi. What I did not expect was the kind honesty and self reflection of a woman truly looking back on her life. Because Lakshmi takes blame for her actions, and is upfront about many of the mistakes she has made, readers are along for the emotional roller coaster found in the quiet moments of life she tenderly portrays - lying on the kitchen floor wrecked after a break up, trying to balance terminal illnesses with the joy of young childhood. These details could have easily been left out, along with all of the mentions of chutneys and street vendor hot-dogs, but that would not have been true to the experience, and Lakshmi clearly wanted to present an honest telling of her life- with the details no one else could. This memoir focuses not just on the facts, but the personal impact of each event - I literally had to pull over on the highway because I was sobbing for her so hard.
Written precisely in the best way for an audio adaptation- everything flows naturally as if these are stories being told by a new friend late into the evening. The audio-book is read by the author, and Lakshmi is well suited for this format. I felt as if she was in the room with me, telling the story, mimicking the voices of the Indian family and American friends, breathing life into characters who are all to often mocked rather than embraced for their cultural differences from mainstream media. AND she reads recipes aloud with commentary in the epilogue, sending us all back to the early years in our first apartments and college dorm-rooms calling home to our mothers when we wanted to make something familiar from home.
If you are a Food Network lover, a Padma Lakshmi fan, or a memoir reader- this is a great choice.
I expected behind the scenes footage of her public life- Top Chef, the food network, cook books, maybe even stories from within that often whispered about marriage to Rushdi. What I did not expect was the kind honesty and self reflection of a woman truly looking back on her life. Because Lakshmi takes blame for her actions, and is upfront about many of the mistakes she has made, readers are along for the emotional roller coaster found in the quiet moments of life she tenderly portrays - lying on the kitchen floor wrecked after a break up, trying to balance terminal illnesses with the joy of young childhood. These details could have easily been left out, along with all of the mentions of chutneys and street vendor hot-dogs, but that would not have been true to the experience, and Lakshmi clearly wanted to present an honest telling of her life- with the details no one else could. This memoir focuses not just on the facts, but the personal impact of each event - I literally had to pull over on the highway because I was sobbing for her so hard.
Written precisely in the best way for an audio adaptation- everything flows naturally as if these are stories being told by a new friend late into the evening. The audio-book is read by the author, and Lakshmi is well suited for this format. I felt as if she was in the room with me, telling the story, mimicking the voices of the Indian family and American friends, breathing life into characters who are all to often mocked rather than embraced for their cultural differences from mainstream media. AND she reads recipes aloud with commentary in the epilogue, sending us all back to the early years in our first apartments and college dorm-rooms calling home to our mothers when we wanted to make something familiar from home.
If you are a Food Network lover, a Padma Lakshmi fan, or a memoir reader- this is a great choice.