Will I love Kitchens of the Great Midwest?

I'm not usually much for food writing. (I mean, it's good, or it's bad, right ?). But this novel, which centers around food and what it means to us, kept me riveted all the way through. 

It's hard to explain exactly why the book is so compelling, but it's by turns funny and moving, and the plot sort of spirals inward in a way I’ve never seen before. 

I finished J. Ryan Stradal’s Great Kitchens of the Northwest coming home on a plane from Chicago this summer and wept as I read his acknowledgment of his mother’s powerful influence on his work. Stradal’s mother was an English major and often read her sons stories she had written as class assignments.

Stradal’s voice reminds me of singer/songwriter John Prine. Like Prine, Stradal’s prose is full of humor and kindness, and he writes convincingly from a woman’s point of view. Great Kitchens is centered around a food-obsessed family.

The characters are fully realized. They experience tragedy and hardship, work long… show more.

I dare you to read this book and not end up a teary, blubbering mess, in the best possible way. Kitchens of the Great Midwest is one of those stories that transported and transformed me. I never knew I needed to spend an afternoon in Minnesota learning how to prepare lutefisk, but after reading this book I can say without hesitation that my life is infinitely better for having done so. This brilliant feast of fiction centers around a young chef Eva who reconnects with her Midwest roots on her quest to find herself and her family in her food.… show more.