On a sunny morning in May 2005, foreign correspondent Matt McAllester's mother, Ann, died unexpectedly of a heart attack, and despite having spent six years reporting on death and devastation from the world's most brutal war zones, he was pole-axed by grief. Pole-axed, and also astonished to be grieving for a woman who had been largely absent from his life, lost for two-and-a-half decades in her private world of madness. In the weeks and months that followed, Matt found himself poring over old family photos and letters, searching for the warm, quick-witted and beautiful woman he remembered from his earliest childhood, who had now vanished for the second time. But as he looked anew at her long-cherished collection of cookbooks, it occurred to him that the best way to find her again might be through something they both treasured: the food she had once lovingly prepared for her family before she was snatched away from them by illness. With the help of Elizabeth David, the cookery writer his mother most revered, Matt embarked on a culinary journey, returning from the front lines to cook Ann's much-loved recipes: from cassoulet, to spare ribs, to steak with Bordelaise sauce, to oeufs en cocotte, to strawberry ice cream - the source of one of his happiest memories. And for the first time he had someone to prepare these dishes for: his new wife, with whom he was trying to conceive a child. "Bittersweet" is McAllester's poignant account of rediscovering his mother's life, coming to terms with her death, and travelling towards a new future as a father. Powerful, affecting and interspersed with mouth-watering recipes, it is a moving testament to the healing power of cooking for those you love.
Bittersweet
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'A love story of the first order. [McAllester's] unflinching honesty will make you cry. His culinary adventures will lead you to put on an apron. And his graceful storytelling will transfix you' Rajiv Chandrasekaran, author of Imperial Life in the Emerald City 'The precision of his descriptions, his frankness, and his defiant irony ... gives us a powerful portrait of a family's courage, tragedy and love' Rory Stewart, author of The Places in Between 'A scrupulously honest dispatch that's every bit as gripping as a report from Abu Ghraib, and every bit as vital' Newsweek 'Bittersweet is a story of love, war, death, madness, alcohol, motherhood, the bond between mother and sons - but ultimately about love. The result is a beautiful book, tragic, haunting but always deeply moving. I cried when I read it, but I wanted to read it until the very last page' Janine di Giovanni, author of Madness Visible
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An unforgettable tale of family, food and love
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Wonderfully written; honest, touching and poignant. Plus stunning photographs documenting every day family life. I couldnt put it down. A book I will always remember.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By E. Goldberg
Format:Hardcover
This book is amazing. Matt McAllister, a war journalist, is coming to terms with the loss of his mother, who died a few years ago. Yet actually, as his story unfolds, he really lost her and his childhood, when he was ten years old, as his mother started a gradual descent into mental illness and alcohol abuse. His anger at her as a teenager and young man, and his gradual acceptance of her condition as an adult, unfurls in his search for the woman he remembered from his early years, and especially through her binding her family together through cooking. Matt undertakes his search through an exploration of cookery, both recipes he remembers from his childhood, and through a challenge to learn to cook as his mother did, using Elizabeth David as a role-model.
Poignant loss and raw emotion envelope memories and challenges of grieving as this cathartic tale unfolds. A book for anyone who loves cooking, their mother, or who has had to deal with grief, and mental illness.
Poignant loss and raw emotion envelope memories and challenges of grieving as this cathartic tale unfolds. A book for anyone who loves cooking, their mother, or who has had to deal with grief, and mental illness.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4.8 out of 5 stars
12 reviews
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
elegant prose, beautiful and tragic
15 April 2009
By David A. Lawrence
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
A moving and fascinating book by a gifted journalist, who focuses his investigative talents this time on his own childhood. Years covering the world's most complicated conflict zones apparently gave McAlester great practice at untangling individual tragedy and spinning it into elegant and lucid prose. He does the same thing with his own life-story, reliving painful memories of anger and love for his mentally-ill mother. Though it's unique, McAlester makes the memoir universal somehow by relating it all through the comfort foods his mother made for him during her best times. It was a pleasure to read despite the sadness.
David Lawrence
Albion, Maine
David Lawrence
Albion, Maine
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Highly Recommended
9 Jun 2009
By Amy B. Sherman
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
This is one of the most moving books I've read in a long time. Haunting even. It is a memoir with recipes but so much more. It's one man's journey through grief and memory to come to a greater understanding of his mother. It has humor, tragedy and great insight and is fantastically well-written. Parts of it are profoundly sad, but it is by no means "depressing" or "detached." If anything its ultimate end is the opposite.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
An honest and brave book
1 April 2010
By Myfanwy Collins
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
Add one part angry, neglected child and one part probing, heartbroken adult and you have a recipe for a brave, honest, and touching book. I was deeply touched by the portrait of this mother--flawed though she was--she was still the glue that held the family together, however tenuously. Along with the eloquent prose, the photographs tell a touching tale of a family in love--the sadness is learning the undercurrent beneath these photos, that each of the family members was struggling to hold on to the beautiful image portrayed. In the end, the taste left in your mouth will be one of satisfaction--knowing that a family rooted in love, will stay together no matter what.
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4.8 out of 5 stars
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