Broccoli and Other Tales of Food and Love [Paperback]

Lara Vapnyar (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 2, 2009

Each of Lara Vapnyar's six stories invites us into a world where food and love intersect, along with the overlapping pleasures and frustrations of Vapnyar's uniquely captivating characters. Meet Nina, a recent arrival from Russia, for whom colorful vegetables represent her own fresh hopes and dreams . . . Luda and Milena, who battle over a widower in their English class with competing recipes for cheese puffs, spinach pies, and meatballs . . . and Sergey, who finds more comfort in the borscht made by a paid female companion than in her sexual ministrations. They all crave the taste and smell of home, wherever—and with whomever—that may turn out to be. A roundup of recipes are the final taste of this delicious collection.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The third book from Vapnyar (following There Are Jews in My House and Memoirs of a Muse) links food to lonely, loveless dating among recent Russian immigrants over six tales. The opening A Bunch of Broccoli on the Third Shelf follows endearingly scatterbrained Nina, whose penchant for letting vegetables wilt in the fridge comes to symbolize her marriage. The warm, awkward Borscht centers on the monastic Sergey, who splurges on an affordable prostitute and finds the transaction doesn't go as planned. In Luda and Milena, the two titular elderly women try to outcook each other to win the affections of Aron, the 79-year-old widower who is the prize single man of their ESL program. Vapnyar, who emigrated from Russia in 1994, draws the humor from her characters' pretensions and predicaments, but also finds a great pathos in their quiet—and not so quiet—desperation. She ends the collection with a blog-voiced roundup of recipes that's incongruent with the delicate stories, but her take on the poignant oddities of New York Russian émigré life is universally palatable. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

Vapnary’s collection of short stories serves up insights into the intimate relationship of food and love. Nina, a Russian émigré living in Brooklyn, buys vegetables that she never finds time to cook. When her husband departs, she takes solace in her refrigerator full of them, no matter that they’ve gone rotten and moldy. Lonely carpet installer Sergey visits a woman he must pay for services, but her real attraction for him turns out to be not sex but a superior borscht. Another woman recalls with her lover the endless lines Russians endured in the last days of the Soviet Union and how she first discovered that boys differed from girls. Luda and Milena meet in an English class. Luda learns to cook from watching the Food Network, and she engages in competition with Milena for the attentions of a fellow classmate both women find attractive. --Mark Knoblauch --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Anchor; Reprint edition (June 2, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 030727988X
• ISBN-13: 978-0307279880
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.3 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #835,949 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Elegant Gems, June 12, 2008

By 

L. Young "palmtree2000" (West Orange, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Broccoli and Other Tales of Food and Love (Hardcover)

Ms.Vapnyar has created here six elegant gems which cover the hopes, dreams and disappointments in the Russian emigree community. However, despite this focus on the Russian community in America these stories are universal, which is what makes them most memorable.

The stories amazingly all revolve around humble foods. A head of broccoli becomes a symbol of possibility for a deserted woman. A bowl of borscht represents comfort to an emigree dealing with the demands of a new country. A bag of puffed rice is a reminder of a traumatic event in a young girl's life.

All of the stories are tinged with the sadness of a place, a person, a dream left behind. Ms. Vapnyar deserves a wide audience for her beautiful prose.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent!, June 26, 2008

By 

Borisovich "BL" (Maryland, USA.,) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Broccoli and Other Tales of Food and Love (Hardcover)

Another book from the author who grips with witty and creative writing. My favorite thing about Lara Vapnyar's stories is how masterfully she blends true life with fiction. While a lot of her ideas are drawn from the memories of growing up in the Soviet Union and later immigrating to the US, in the end they always make you wonder where exactly the transition was, and at which point a story took that sharp turn into the world of creativity, almost fantasy or farse.
FYI: one definitely true statement - the snow really does not crunch here the same way it did back in Russia...
If this is your first Vapnyar book, you also owe to yourself to read the other two: "There are Jews in My House", and "Memoirs of Muse".
One thing I found evident reading her books is how her English skills have progressed. While the early stories had the same witty and warm feeling, sometimes the diction felt a little too much like a word for word translation from Russian. I have a good fortune being fluent in both English and Russian, and was able to pick up on subtle details like that.
Overall, a great book, with a lot of powerful ideas packed in a small package.

4.0 out of 5 stars Short stories for foodies, October 31, 2009

By 

1morechapter.com (Omaha, NE) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Broccoli and Other Tales of Food and Love (Paperback)

Broccoli and Other Tales of Food and Love would be perfect for someone participating in the Well-Seasoned Reader Challenge. There are six short stories in the book, and they all have to do with food. There are even recipes for some Russian dishes in the back.

"A Bunch of Broccoli on the Third Shelf" tells the story of Nina, a Russian immigrant who loves to shop for vegetables but rarely cooks them.

"Borscht" is a sad story about two people who come to the States to earn money for their families, but then their loved ones are indifferent to them going back home to Russia.

"Puffed Rice and Meatballs" is about Katya's memory of a childhood incident that she refuses to share with her American boyfriend.

In "Salad Olivier," a mother tries to find her daughter a boyfriend -- but he must be Russian.

"Luda and Milena" was my favorite story. Two older women fighting over an older man with their cooking.

In "Slicing Sauteed Spinach," Ruzena lets her lover choose her food for her. Until...

I really enjoyed this collection, but especially "Luda and Milena." It was a pure gem.

Lara Vapnyar won the 2004 Goldberg Prize for Jewish Fiction by Emerging Writers for There Are Jews in my House. She emigrated from Russia in 1994 when she was in her early twenties and now lives in New York.