Kitchens of the Great Midwest

by J. Ryan Stradal

'A tremendous novel that combines powerfully moving moments with hilarious satire' Daily Mail

'Eva Thorvald is the new Olive Kitteridge' Elisabeth Egan

'Kitchens of the Great Midwest is terrific' Jane Smiley, Guardian

Have you met Eva Thorvald?

To her father, a chef, she's a pint-sized recipe tester and the love of his life. To the chilli chowdown contestants of Cook County, Illinois, she's a fire-eating demon. To the fashionable foodie goddess of supper clubs, she's a wanton threat. She's an enigma, a secret ingredient that no one can figure out. Someday, Eva will surprise everyone.

One by one, they tell their story; together, they tell Eva's. Joyful, quirky and heartwarming, this is a novel about the family you lose, the friends you make and the chance connections that make a life.

On the day before her eleventh birthday, she's cultivating chilli peppers in her wardrobe like a pro. Abandoned by her mother, gangly and poor, Eva arms herself with the weapons of her unknown heritage: a kick-ass palate and a passion bordering on obsession.

Over the years, her tastes grow, and so do her ambitions. One day Eva will be the greatest chef in the world. But along the way, the people she meets will shape her - and she, them - in ways unforgettable, riotous and profound. So she - for one - knows exactly who she is by the time her mother returns.

Special paperback edition with questions for reading groups, interview, guide to the Midwest, recipes and more!

• ISBN10: 052542914X
• ISBN13: 9780525429142
• Publish Date: 28 July 2015
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Imprint: Pamela Dorman Books
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 320
• Language: English

Reviews

Went into this book without knowing much about it and most of the time it’s a good thing but not in this case. Don’t get me wrong I enjoyed it but I didn’t care for the structure. It introduces a snippet of a character with each chapter that somehow crosses Eva’s path but then you don’t know what happened to most of those characters. At the end a few come back but I didn’t t care for the second half as much as the first. It was well written, and I enjoyed it but I was hoping for something more.

[Terri M. LeBlanc]

I loved the start of this novel and Eva’s culinary journey, but once the story moved on to other, seemingly unrelated characters, I lost interest.

Loved the descriptions of life in the Midwest and the food. I will have to make those bars. Everyone loves bars.

[Beth C.]

Food is, of course, what we eat to keep our bodies going. But for Eva, it is more. It is how she communicates her life, and is often the window through which she sees life in general. Her life takes a variety of twists and turns to help mold her into the person she is, and "Kitchens of the Great Midwest" does a wonderful job of showing how food can be the anchor in a chain of a life that has had its share of storms.

While this book is billed as a novel, it felt more like a series of stories whose commonality happened to be Eva and her love of food. Each section went to a very different place (the kitchens of the title), and sometimes Eva was barely attached. Eventually, though, all the stories circled back to the beginning of...Eva. It's hard to write too much more about it without giving spoilers (and I *hate* spoilers), so just be prepared for this book to not necessarily flow like a regular novel. However, it's not disconcerting and it works very well, so don't let that keep you from giving this book a chance, either. Just keep an eye on the characters, because they have a tendency to show up again when you least expect them to!

I did not try any of the recipes in the book - frankly, they felt sort of thrown in almost as an afterthought. And since there are only a few, and not really necessary to the story as a whole, I didn't feel it necessary to make them. I may, at some point, but the story is whole without them.

J. Ryan Stradal has created a unique work of fiction in this title. It starts out a bit slow, but each character is fully fleshed out and the story is well-paced and thoughtful. Certainly a unique take on a novel and worth spending the time to read.