Small Fires: An Epic in the Kitchen

by Rebecca May Johnson Narrated by Kim Bretton

Overview

A bracingly original, revelatory debut that explores cooking and the kitchen as sources of pleasure, constraint, and revolution, by a rising star in food writing



This joyful, revelatory work of memory and meditation both complicates and electrifies life in the kitchen.



Why do we cook? Is it just to feed ourselves and others? Or is there something more revolutionary going on?



In Small Fires, Rebecca May Johnson reinvents cooking-that simple act of rolling up our sleeves, wielding a knife, spattering red hot sauce on our books-as a way of experiencing ourselves and the world. Cooking is thinking: about the liberating constraint of tying apron strings; the transformative dynamics of shared meals; the meaning of appetite and bodily pleasure; the wild subversiveness of the recipe, beyond words or control.



Small Fires shows us the radical potential of the thing we do every day: the power of small fires burning everywhere.

Editorial Reviews

MARCH 2024 - AudioFile

Kim Bretton infuses Rebecca May Johnson's food memoir with a quiet but breathless energy that makes it feel almost like a page-turner. Johnson spent more than 10 years cooking the same recipe for a simple tomato sauce hundreds of times. In this memoir, she investigates how we think about recipes, combining food writing, literary criticism, feminist scholarship, and social commentary. Bretton's narration is intimate and hushed. She captures Johnson's passion for her subject, delivers the passages of critical analysis with clarity, and infuses the vivid cooking scenes with wonderfully visceral drama. This challenging and engrossing memoir will forever change the way listeners think about recipes. L.S. © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940159385987
Publisher:	Tantor Audio
Publication date:	12/19/2023
Edition description:	Unabridged
Sales rank:	1,257,559

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