Crazy in the Kitchen: Foods, Feuds, and Forgiveness in an Italian American Family, Paperback/Louise DeSalvo

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During Louise De Salvo's childhood in 1950s New Jersey, the kitchen becomes the site for fierce generational battle. Louise's step-grandmother insists on recreating the domestic habits of her Southern Italian peasant upbringing, clashing with Louise's convenience-food-loving mother; Louise, meanwhile, dreams of cooking perfect fresh pasta in her own kitchen. But as Louise grows up to indulge in amazing food and travels to Italy herself, she arrives at a fuller and more compassionate picture of her own roots. And, in the process, she reveals that our image of the bounteous Italian American kitchen may exist in part to mask a sometimes painful history. Louise De Salvo is a writer, professor, lecturer, and scholar who lives in New Jersey. Her many books include the memoirs Vertigo, Breathless, and Adultery; the acclaimed biography Virginia Woolf: The Impact of Childhood Sexual Abuse on her Life and Work; and Writing as a Way of Healing. Recently, she edited Woolf's early novel Melymbrosia and coedited The Milk of Almonds: Italian American Women Writers on Food and Culture. A Book Sense 76 pick in hardcover "Louise De Salvo packs about six courses of emotional wallop into her slim memoir... A] tough, courageous story, one of hard-won wisdom and memory."-San Francisco Chronicle "Illuminate s] the difficulties of reconciling past and present...De Salvo celebrates the table of her ancestors by savoring her own rediscovered history."-New York Times Book Review "An affecting story of immigrants in America...These recollections are tinged with pain and beauty."-Publishers Weekly "The dramatics of De Salvo's] youth, it seems, produced a superior, dedicated writer and a determined, devoted cook who may go a little crazy in the kitchen... A] juicy, tender text, seasoned with fear, loathing, and love served Italian style."-Kirkus Reviews Crazy in the Kitchen is in the "Home About the Author: Louise De Salvo (1942-2018) was the multi-award-winning author of such memoirs as Vertigo, Breath