J. Ryan Stradal - Kitchens of the Great Midwest

Rating: 5/5

Review:
Thoroughly enjoyable

I thoroughly enjoyed this book.  I approached it with some scepticism because from the description I thought it might be a load of "heart-warming" sentimental old nonsense, but I was completely wrong; this is a very well written, excellently observed and very enjoyable book.

Notionally, this is the story of Eva Thorvald from her birth, through the trials of her growing up and wanting to become a chef.  In fact, it is a series of episodes told from the point of view of various characters whose lives intersect with Eva's (sometimes very tangentially), with only one chapter being from Eva's point of view directly.  The book is really a series of extremely well-drawn and engaging character studies, set in a wholly convincing milieu largely in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Illinois.

The binding theme here is food and people's attitudes to it.  Ryan Stradal manages to make this completely engaging and, to me, very engrossing by creating such utterly believable characters.  They are human, often flawed, often very engaging and beautifully drawn.  The narrative is in the third person throughout, but for each one Stradal uses the language the character themselves might use so we get a variety of voices which I found very enjoyable and completely real.  From the besotted teenage boy via the vain, competitive "friend" to the upright Lutheran wife and mother, every one of them had me hooked, completely engaged, sometimes laughing out loud and sometimes very touched.

Stradal just catches the attitudes of the people and communities he writes about brilliantly and treats them with wit, warmth of heart and compassion.  He is also very good on the difference between the care for genuine, good quality food and trend-driven, competitive faddishness and the book is full of little insights into character, kindness, people's behaviour and so on.

In short, I thought this was terrific.  It has a rare combination of having some real substance while being very readable, often very funny and sometimes very affecting without ever straying into easy sentimentality.  The stories often don't go where you expect, and I really wanted to know what happened to these people.  It's a book which surprised me by how very good it is and I can recommend it very warmly indeed.