With Thanksgiving nigh, my thoughts still linger on the place of food in the novel.
I think Lahiri uses food and meals to draw contrasts between the culture Ashima and Ashoke left behind in India and their new one in Massachusetts. Obviously an experienced cook, Ashima feels lost and incompetent when it comes to preparing the American food her children ask for. Likewise, many of us who grew up in the States and know our way around a kitchen might lose confidence if instead of turkey, stuffing, and pumpkin pie, we were expected to prepare pakora, dosa, and kheer for the Thanksgiving meal.
The novel's descriptions of food and meals reminded me of a sight gag in an old Woody Allen film. Someone (I think it was probably a gentile girlfriend played by Diane Keaton) offers to bring Allen's character lunch, and shows up with a grocery bag from which she pulls bologna, mayonnaise, and Wonder Bread, fixings that are the antithesis of Allen's Jewish notion of lunch, which would more likely include corned beef, mustard, and rye. This scene gets a big laugh, not because of any dialogue but because the visual of the food itself conveys so much information about the differences between Jewish and gentile culture.
Often here in the US teenagers from carnivorous families decide to become vegetarians, which can lead to interesting family dynamics concerning cooking, eating, and nutrition. Have you been on one side or the other of such a situation?
Read this interview with the author in which she talks about the role that food plays in the life of an immigrant: www.bookpage.com/0309bp/jhumpa_lahiri.html. Then come back and share your thoughts.
P.S. If you like Indian food and want to learn how to cook some of it, come to the library's Indian cooking class on December 14. Call me at 603-589-4610 to preregister.
Comments (1)
I read the article about Lahiri.
From the article:
"I like cooking and eating all different kinds of food," Lahiri says. "And I come from a very food-oriented family. Like most children of immigrants, I'm aware of how important food becomes for foreigners who are trying to deal with life in a new world. Food is a very deep part of people's lives and it has incredible meaning beyond the obvious nutritional aspects. My parents have given up so many basic things coming here from the life they once knew—family, love, connections—and food is one thing that they've really held onto."
I think that for all immigrants food is an important link with their past, their culture and family. I find that in my own background, Italian, that food was a center of many things. It was especially important in celebrating holidays and holydays - much like the author demonstrates in the novel. We had certain foods that were almost identified with a holiday. We always had lots of fish on Christmas Eve. And to this day I remember making what I always called my grandmother's "egg" cookies (they had a lot of eggs!! They have another name, but I didn't know it.) At Easter I remember having Stufoli and the bread with the egg cooked in the center. Also, so much of the family get togethers were centered in the kitchen.
I think for immigrants it gives them something of home that they can have in a strange place and it symbolizes the family and fun times. maybe the food ties everything together. The aromas of foods also are important - memory is often invoked by the smell of certain foods and other things. When I smell fresh cooked tomatoes and grapes for grape jelly I think of my grandmother; she canned tomatoes and made grape jelly from the grapes from their vine - Those smells will always remind me of her.
I wandered a bit. But back tothe novel, the descriptions of food and how people prepared it and their customs about meals adds reality to the descriptions of the characters. We have a more real and full appreciation of what makes Max's family unique by the descriptions the author uses as she describes the process of preparation and the actual eating of the meal.
Foods show the differences between and among the characters - Gogol's wife's (oops forgot her name - book is downstairs) friends are very casual about food - they have a dinner party with hardly any - and then served very late - perhaps it's also a mirror of their attitude toward their guests????
That's about it for now. I hope others will have finished the book and contribute - I'd like to read more comments about the book.
Diana
Posted by Diana Lytle | November 27, 2006 8:51 PM
Posted on November 27, 2006 20:51