Through the Kitchen Window: Women Explore the Intimate Meanings of Food and Cooking by Arlene Voski Avakian


Through the Kitchen Window: Women Explore the Intimate Meanings of Food and Cooking
Title : Through the Kitchen Window: Women Explore the Intimate Meanings of Food and Cooking
Author :
Rating :
ISBN : 1845203267
ISBN-10 : 9781845203269
Language : English
Format Type : Paperback
Number of Pages : 336
Publication : First published July 20, 1997

These days any woman knows that the sensual pleasures of food and cooking are all too often obscured by the increasing demands of careers, families, battles over body image, and the desire for a life outside the 'traditional' domain of the kitchen. With contributions by Dorothy Allison, Maya Angelou, Letty Cottin Pogrebin and Marge Piercy among others, Through the Kitchen Window offers a fresh look at food and cooking as more than the makings of a meal. For the writers in this provocative collection, food is a cultural declaration, an expression of hidden hungers, a symbol of our intimate connections to one another.Including memories of Latina, Geechee, Chinese and Indian kitchens, Through the Kitchen Window reveals everything from the painful struggles to overcome an eating disorder to the tantalizing delights of cornbread and barbecue eaten from a lover's hands, and challenges assumptions about women, food, and the true satisfaction of cooking.

Through the Kitchen Window: Women Explore the Intimate Meanings of Food and Cooking Reviews

  • Desiree

    I wish I could give this book more stars. Some of the stories were absolutely beautiful and moving and educational and inspirational.
    Then there's the one from an aptly titled collection called "Trash." Near the end, it's called "A Lesbian Appetite," and includes scenes of (spoiler alert, also TMI and not for prudes)...



    ...shoving sliced vegetables into orifices (orifi?) and then force-feeding them, and golden showers. Described in graphic detail. I'm not against erotica or anything, and certainly not girl-on-girl, but frankly the whole thing made me want to retch and I wish it hadn't been included in a collection of otherwise deep and fascinating memoirs. It's also one of the only stories which includes no childhood memories, cultural explorations or formative anecdotes (which is what makes the rest of them so interesting), just goes on and on about the various women the author has F'ed. Hoo boy. She's got ISSUES, I say, and I wish I could un-read that story. Burned into my mind forever... Bah.

  • Emily

    Organized into three sections - inheritance, transformations, and resolutions - these feminist essays discuss cooking, food, and eating as elements of a woman's life, revealing differences, commonalities, and the overarching power of food.

  • Laurie

    I consider my discovery of this book as one of the best things to come out of my Master's thesis research -- much better than my thesis.

  • julie

    this book had the potential to be good, but was so self-conscious and insecure about its feminism that it ended up a mish-mash. some essays are good, some should have been edited much more.

  • Kim

    Started off strong and petered out. I tried one recipe twice and it still didn't work.