Mini-Review: Ruth Reichl's Not Becoming My Mother
We’ve been fans of Ruth Reichl’s writing for some time — Garlic and Sapphires is a very fun account of life as an undercover restaurant reviewer, and Tender at the Bone takes the reader right into Reichl’s often-hilarious and bittersweet childhood in the shadow of a daunting mother figure.
The Gourmet editor delves far deeper into that mother figure’s psyche in her latest, Not Becoming My Mother, and Other Things She Taught Me Along the Way. It’s a light little book and a quick read, but thoroughly enjoyable given the emotional undercurrents and doses of culinary intrigue.
Reichl’s reflections on her mother’s life are interwoven with anecdotes about the poisoning and near-poisoning of dinner guests, family members, and childhood friends alike. Yet she takes us beyond these events to explore what really drove her mother — and held her back.
It’s an eye-opening account of modern womanhood and the relationship between a mother and her family, particularly because Reichl is brutally honest about her desire to be as different as possible from the woman who raised her.
Not Becoming My Mother will be released by Penguin Press on April 21.
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The Humble Gourmand is published the first Friday of each month, edited by Alison L. McConnell, a Washington, D.C.-based journalist and writer. It is designed to offer straightforward lessons and advice to aspiring cooks, oenophiles, and all other eaters and drinkers.
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