| Title | Kitchens of the Great Midwest |
| Author | J. Ryan Stradal |
| Copyright | 2015 |
| Type | Fiction |
| Length | 310 pages |
| Finished Reading | July 28, 2023 |
| Notable | Winner 2016 American Booksellers Association Indie’s Choice Award for Adult Debut Book of the year 2016 SCIBA award for best fiction title 2016 Midwest Bookseller’s Choice award for debut fiction. |
| Ratings | Personal: ★★★★ Amazon: 4.0 (4,946 ratings) Goodreads: 3.81 (48,520 ratings) |
This is the story of Eva Thorvald from her infancy to her being a wildly successful chef told through the stories of others. Her mother abandons her and her father, Lars, when she is an infant. Lars gave her Eva all his love.
When Lars first held her, his heart melted over her like butter on warm bread, and he would never get it back.
Page 7
As you can tell from that first simile, Lars is a foodie. He asks the doctor a question about how soon he can introduce solid foods into Eva’s diet.
In his office, Dr. Latch listened to Lars’s question and then looked at the young man the way someone might regard a toddler who’s holding a Buck Knife.
Page 10
“You want to fee carrot cake to a four month-old?” Dr. Latch asked .
Lars’ love of food is passed on to Eva. At the age of 11 she is raising chocolate habanero plants in her closet. She uses the plants to get back at her bully Chad who
smelled like cheap apple juice and was gross like mayo oozing out of the side of a free sandwich.
Page 40
The chapter “Walleye” is simply beautiful about Eva and her high school boyfriend, Will. This chapter alone makes reading the novel worthwhile.
Like the other Stradal novels I’ve read – “The Lager Queen of Minnesota “and “Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club” this covers the theme of family issues layered on a motif of food and cooking. In this case the issue is Eva’s mother, Cynthia, abandoning Eva. Later in the novel Cynthia becomes aware of Eva’s success and starts to make an effort to reconnect.
I especially like the structure of the novel. Rather than writing a straight narrative account as he does with the other novels of his I’ve read, this reads more like a series of short stories where Eva’s part is center stage and others she is on the periphery. In the culminating chapter Eva creates a menu where most, if not all, the items are related to the various chapters.
And there is plenty of humor. Growing up Lars was forced into the chore of making Lutefisk, in which
the careful cooking required to make something that, when perfectly prepared, looked like jellied smog and smelled like boiled aquarium water.
Page 1
If you’ve read a few of my book reports you know I hold a special place in my heart for similes; I especially love this one: it is food-related – as one in this story should be – and gives a perfect word picture.
This is a fun and touching novel well worth your time.
