Category: Fiction: Adult

Copyright/published Year: 2006 by St Martins

ISBN: 0-312-34811-8

Binding: Cloth

Description: Animated as a family reunion, intimate as a lovers' picnic, ì American Cookery serves up tradition and innovation in a family ì novel based on the joy of cooking. The story is complete with ì twenty-seven recipes from the life and tumultuous times of Eden ì Douglass.

Eden was born in 1920 into a contentious California tribe, and ì the ingredients of her life include her grandmother's reserve, ì her aunt's instinct for action, and her mother's foggy warmth. ì Seasoned with spicy herbs, and a few bitter ones, simmered and ì stirred over time, these instincts shape her destiny.

Two strong-willed women-her grandmother Ruth Douglass and her ì aunt Afton Lance-struggle to pull Eden from the comfy sloth of ì her parents' home. Her ill-matched parents drift toward ì financial collapse, and her father, pursuing phantom wealth, ì takes the family to an Idaho mining town. He finds fulfillment ì in Idaho, but Eden's mother breaks down, and Eden must shoulder ì the household drudgery, burdens not in keeping with her ì aspirations to be a journalist.

Eden's adventurous spirit takes her far from her faith and ì family. She falls in love in wartime London and rides a ì motorcycle across war-torn Belgium. After the war, still reeling ì from a devastating loss, Eden returns to Southern California and ì is hired by a newspaper, only to confront insidious opposition, ì yet find an unexpected ally.

Then, in 1952, fate puts Eden Douglass in the path of a runaway ì horse at Greenwater Movie Ranch, where they're filing a B-movie ì Western. She falls flat on her face, and Matt March lifts her ì from the dust. Charming and charismatic, with good looks, cowboy ì boots, and appetite for life, and his VistaVision of the Western, ì Matt ignites Eden's passion. Three months later, they elope to ì Mexico.

In these exuberant California boom years, Eden nourishes Matt's ì dreams, even though they are sauced with secrets and larded with ì debt. He tests Eden's strengths and his children's love.

A big-cast book, American Cookery fulfills the wide ì embrace of its title. The novel chronicles the stories behind ì family recipes and the lives that touch Eden's-lives of horse ì thieves, ranchers, railroad men, developers, dreamers, migrants, ì immigrants, natives, Latter-Day Saints, sinners, silent-film ì stars, sidekicks, and stunt people.

The good, the bad, the ugly and the beautiful emerge in these ì pages as American Cookery serves up the whole gorgeous ì banquet of life.

Condition Information

This book is new.