M.F.K. Fisher and Me : A Memoir of Food and Friendship

Rating:
Summary: A book revealing as much of the author as its subject
Review: This book struck me as pretty dishonest on the part of the author. It is never clear that she actually told Fisher that she was writing a book about her. Yet, even worse is how several vignettes set up Fisher to expose her flaws but in actuality the rationalizations of the author expose her to be someone with questionable motivations. There are sins of omission within the narrative -- or the author is so blind to how her own behavior appears -- that Fisher seems stranger than she actually is. If Fisher was so difficult, why did the author keep going back for more? I don't think that Fisher was a saint but I also don't believe that the author was without a lot of ambition. This is not a balanced memoir at all.

For instance, her "innocence" vis-a-vis Fisher are not to be believed.

Fisher's "flaws" seem a lot more honest than the author's.

And ultimately despite the author's claims to love Fisher, I don't believe it for a second.

Rating:
Summary: Welcome To The Feast
Review: This charming little memoir is the perfect addition to the library of any M.F.K. Fisher admirer or travel essay lover. Ferrary and close friend Frances Mayes(author of Under the Tuscan Sun and Bella Tuscany)befriended Fisher in the later years of her life while Fisher lived in "Last House." Ferrary shares loving, yet honest vignettes that reveal Fisher to be far from the sweet little old lady that many fans imagined. With great tenderness, Ferrary shows us the physical struggles that this indomitable woman fought against declining health. This all too brief volume makes the reader yearn to have been a part of those wonderous visits and at the same time manages to make us feel we were. The experience is not to be missed.

Rating:
Summary: A good memoir of a friendship
Review: You don't get much of M.F.K. Fisher's colorful history, any deeply revealed gossip or scandal. And you leave the book knowing that's exactly what makes this a great read. It's a chronicle of an always loving, sometimes difficult friendship, where the subject has definite boundaries you just do not cross. A lovely, if light memoir.