In this poetic, sensitive memoir, M. F. K. Fisher traces her life from birth through childhood into adulthood through memories of her loving family and their lives as outsiders in the Quaker community of Whittier, California. Recalling the people, passions, sounds, and scents of her childhood, with its kindnesses and quiet cruelties, Fisher also portrays her developing interests in literature, food, and cooking. Elegantly and invitingly written, Among Friends demonstrates the writer’s belief that “every lesson, every lecture listened to, must be interpreted into a personal dialect of human language, and that is what I keep trying to do.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
"She writes about food as others do about love, but rather better."--Clifton Fadiman
"M. F. K. Fisher ... brings onstage a peach or a brace of quail and shows us history, cities, fantasies, memories, emotions."--Patricia Storace, The New York Review of Books
"M. F. K. Fisher is our greatest food writer because she puts food in the mount, the mind and the imagination all at the same time. Beyond the gastronomical bravura, she is a passionate woman; food is her metaphor."--Shana Alexander
"M. F. K. Fisher ... brings onstage a peach or a brace of quail and shows us history, cities, fantasies, memories, emotions."--Patricia Storace, The New York Review of Books
"M. F. K. Fisher is our greatest food writer because she puts food in the mount, the mind and the imagination all at the same time. Beyond the gastronomical bravura, she is a passionate woman; food is her metaphor."--Shana Alexander
About the Author
M. F. K. Fisher was born in Albion, Michigan, on July 3, 1908. She is the author of numerous books, many of which have become American classics. She died in 1992.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of my favorite books,
By
This review is from: Among Friends (Paperback)
Some people think of MFK Fisher as simply a food writer. This book reveals the flaw in that way of thinking, because Fisher was truly one of the great writers of the last century. "Among Friends" tells the story of her growing up in the 1910s in Whittier, California -- a Quaker community. A non-Quaker, she tells of the gentle, exclusive bigotry of the Friends. She also describes a California which has all but vanished -- the drive from Whitter to Ventura was an overland trek! And, her culinary memory is astonishing. She describes in glorious detail what her family ate and how she came to her love of good food, well prepared. This book works on so many levels, and I cannot recommend it highly enough.
8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
kitchen poetry,
This review is from: Among Friends (Paperback)
Not only does MFK fisher appreciate good food, but this book is one everybody can relate to. Its a FUN read with language reserved mostly for poetry. An absolute MUST.
6 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
difficult to relate to,
By
This review is from: Among Friends (Paperback)
I received this book as a gift to read while recovering from surgery. I plodded through the preface and first few chapters, then had to resort to skimming the rest. I found it cumbersome and verbose -- filled with long-winded sentences, lofty and uncommon language (had to keep my dictionary at hand), and references that were entirely unknown to me. One might say it was over my head I suppose. The best parts were her descriptions of the simple but heavenly foods she recalled from her childhood. Other than that, and her account of life in Quaker Whittier CA, I didn't find much in this memoir that I cared about. I know that her prose is highly regarded, but it was lost on me. I have not read any of her other books.
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
Most minds have someplace in them a scrappy collection of phrases that are there, caught like gnats in the honey of memory . . . flies in the amber. Read the first page Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Aunt Gwen, Uncle Mac, Miss Newby, Los Angeles, Cousin Lizzie, Charles Somerville, Penn Street School, Jim Town, Lame Ducks, Miss Raymer, Edith Kennedy, Margie Thayer, Uncle Park, Victor Hugo, Bishop Johnson, Miss Brotherton, Parish House, Red Cross, White Sauce, Aunt Maggie, Donal Grant, Matty Matteson, Santa Claus, Scarlet Dens, Society of Friends New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Most minds have someplace in them a scrappy collection of phrases that are there, caught like gnats in the honey of memory . . . flies in the amber. Read the first page Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Aunt Gwen, Uncle Mac, Miss Newby, Los Angeles, Cousin Lizzie, Charles Somerville, Penn Street School, Jim Town, Lame Ducks, Miss Raymer, Edith Kennedy, Margie Thayer, Uncle Park, Victor Hugo, Bishop Johnson, Miss Brotherton, Parish House, Red Cross, White Sauce, Aunt Maggie, Donal Grant, Matty Matteson, Santa Claus, Scarlet Dens, Society of Friends New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 43
books:
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45
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- Sesame and Lilies by John Ruskin on page 129, and page 263
- Peter Pan Acting (Acting Edition) by James M Barrie on page 270
- Sister Age by M.F.K. Fisher in Front Matter
- An Alphabet for Gourmets by M. F. K. Fisher in Front Matter
- The Princess and the Goblin (Puffin Classics) by George Macdonald on page 273
See all 43 books this book cites
- Conversations with M. F. K. Fisher (Literary Conversations) by David Lazar on 12 pages
- Poet of the Appetites: The Lives and Loves of M.F.K. Fisher by Joan Reardon on 10 pages
- California Home Cooking: 400 Recipes that Celebrate the Abundance of Farm and Garden, Orchard and Vineyard, Land and Sea (America Cooks) by Michele Anna Jordan on page 167, page 443, and Back Matter
- Necessary Losses: The Loves, Illusions, Dependencies, and Impossible Expectations That All of Us Have to Give Up in Order to Grow by Judith Viorst in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
- From the Journals of M.F.K. Fisher by M.F.K. Fisher in Front Matter, and Back Matter
See all 45 books citing this book
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