Customer Reviews

Cooking and Screaming: Finding My Own Recipe for Recovery

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Cooking and Screaming - A Love Story

I consider this book to be a love story. Kane touches the core and center of cooking - love for life. Her writing is neither pretentious nor sentimental about her life journey, considering what she went through in her young age. At 17 her successful businessman father suffered a stroke. At 21 she herself suffered a stroke just before her graduation from UC Berkeley. Those experiences are the blessings in disguise since she found what is important in her life and that helped her to create her own life in her own way. She learned the importance of empathy and compassion. What attracted me most is Kane's efforts not to yield to a poor-poor-pitiful-me attitude. She is feisty but not loud. This subtle but powerful book titled Cooking and Screaming fascinates me also knowing her meta-cognitive process during this journey.

She addressed the notion that psychological struggle (frustration, humiliation, anger, misunderstanding, true or false pride, bruised ego, etc.) was more of a challenge than that of physical inconvenience. After dealing with those emotions, she chose not to dwell on them. Dragging those emotions (lamenting, sobbing, crying, blaming and complaining) endlessly is not her cup of tea. Furthermore, the life alternating experience when her father suffered from a stroke while she was in her teens gave her plenty of lessons and strength. She shifted her energy to focus on what she loves - her renewed interest and passion - Cooking!

Her support network impressed me and touched my heart. Her faithful and caring boyfriend (now her husband), her loving family and her loyal and thoughtful close friends have demonstrated their genuine, authentic love and tremendous support and encouragement. She treasures it and keep on cooking for them and others.

It's a brilliant idea to come up with this unique format of combining the introduction of several selected recipes out of thousands and related semi-biographical articles. It helps to avoid the possible monotonous and heavy tone that a traditional chronological and linear sequence of writing sometimes would bring. It appeals to the target readers living in the age of Blog and Twitter. Interestingly enough, this non-linear method in this book escapes from spiral, self-indulgent writing, but it is logical and lyrical. It has a rhythm between the lines as if we are listening to music. Serious matters are balanced out with plenty of humor and her unique cynicism. Her vivid description when it comes to food and cooking, the speed and rhythm evokes a jazzy dancing mood. It clearly shows her passion and love for cooking.

Kane certainly spends more time on the things she loves than on excessive screaming. She is definitely not in denial. Rather she is very alert. She simply tries to enjoy her life. Her subtle but powerful book titled "Cooking and Screaming" is a love story and leaves us celebrating the resiliency of her life.

I made the mistake of starting this book around midnight, intending to read a few pages before falling asleep. Next thing I know, it's the wee hours of the morning and I'm turning the last page--this is an impossible book to put down once you've begun. I love food memoirs and food essays mostly because the really good ones use eating and cooking as a window into a life. And Cooking and Screaming accomplishes just that. It's an inspiring story about an extraordinary experience, sure, but it's also a very universal one. And you don't often come across a story about loss and family and personal quest (very lofty subjects indeed) that is as disarmingly funny and subtle as this one. This is not a book that screams, despite the title; it's a quiet book to curl up with and read in one sitting on a rainy afternoon, but it will end up staying with you for much longer than that.

March 3, 2009

I just finished Cooking and Screaming, a memoir by Adrienne Kane. I enjoyed reading it but not because it was a good memoir. It was an engaging story, and Kane is a very likable and brave woman. But Kane deals with her issue -- finding herself suddenly partially paralyzed after a stroke at age twenty-one -- without really letting us, the readers, in on the full experience of it. A good memoir requires full commitment of feelings and actions, those are its ingredients, and without those essentials, the memoir falls flat.

Kane writes a food blog (Nosheteria.com) and the book reads like blog entries: nothing too deep, a steady narrative line (and voice), and chirpy conclusions stuck in here and there. Each chapter starts with a recipe -- very blog-like -- which ties in with something in the chapter and the recipes look great. In fact, Kane is at her best when talking about food: buying it, preparing it, and eating it.

The purpose of memoir is to reveal what is hidden, to hold up thoughts and fears, hopes and sorrows, to the light of exposure, and to find a story in that exposure. The memoir invites the reader to be witness to the events that changed and shaped a life. Julia Blackburn's memoir, The Three of Us, for example, is a powerful memoir of emotionally abusive parents and the resilience and intelligence of Blackburn in the face of the abuses. It is powerful because Blackburn shares with the reader the facts of her life with her parents, no matter how ugly; her feelings, no matter how dark or shallow or seemingly inappropriate; and her actions, both laudable and not-so laudable.

Adrienne Kane suffered a stroke just weeks before graduating from college. Cooking and Screaming tells of her recovery and how she came to rely on cooking to regain her confidence, gain her independence , and jump start her new life. Using my imagination and reading between the lines, I can see that it must have been terrible for Kane to suffer such a stroke and become disabled. But I never read about her pain, her fears, her anger, her moments of weakness: she was a bit too stoic and understated over the circumstances of her stroke and the aftermath of rehab. Kane had to start over again, living a new life in a different way and what did that feel like? For example, Kane had been a dancer her whole life but after the injury she does not dance; Kane doesn't tell us how it must feel to have danced every day and then -- suddenly -- never dance again. She never tells us about remembering what it had been like to dance: the sweat, the work, the ache of her muscles, the beauty that came out of the pain and work and sweat. Did she never think about dancing again? Did being a dancer help her in rehab? Does she miss dancing now, does she go to dance performances, is she in touch with past teachers and fellow dancers? The sharing of these kinds of details and even more intimate ones are what memoirs are made of. The deeply felt and hidden responses to one's life are the blood and bone of memoirs and we get absolutely none of that in this book.

But I did like reading Kane's book. She is sincere and genuine and laid back. Reading her memoir was like reading Facebook entries from a friend telling me about her recovery from a debilitating illness (a friend who does not want to share any compelling details of the illness or the aftermath but just wants me to take her word for it that it was terrible). I liked the woman who wrote this book and we would probably have stuff in common if we met --books and music and movies that we would both like -- except that I am a terrible and impatient cook who occasionally and miraculously cooks something good but since I never follow a recipe, I have no idea how I did it and the dish is just never as good the second time around. Kane sounds like she must be a marvelous cook. I just wish she had shared the details of her wrenching and disabling experience -- what she was feeling mentally and physically -- as willingly as she shares her recipes.

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After discovering an article recently printed in the Boston Globe highlighting Adrienne Kane's work, my dad purchased me a copy of her memoir, "Cooking and Screaming," knowing that I might be able to relate to her story. I just finished this truly inspiring book, and felt compelled to sing its praises in the hopes of spreading the word about this remarkable read. I know I've discovered a rare literary find when an author gives a voice to thoughts and feelings I myself have experienced, but failed to adequately verbalize. With an honest and approachable writing style, Kane invites readers into her life, and over to her kitchen table. I felt at home in the pages of her prose, and found myself yearning for more of her delicious recipes and heartwarming personal tales as I reached the final pages. Reading "Cooking and Screaming" felt almost therapeutic for me, and following Kane on her journey to recovery and self-discovery through the kitchen was encouraging, uplifting, and an absolute pleasure. I greatly admire Kane's unwavering courage and resilience in the face of adversity, but most of all, I admire her innate and infectious passion for food. Kane allows readers to live vicariously through her culinary adventures, and the format of utilizing recipes to launch each chapter was unique and refreshing. I simply devoured this fantastic book, and highly recommend it without reservation.

While most college graduates ponder their future and dream of things they will learn and awesome new experiences, Adrienne Kane graduates from college pondering how she will re-learn to walk and do the mundane things of daily existence. Stricken with a stroke-type ailment weeks shy of her college graduation, Kane shares her touching personal experience of how she learned to deal with her "new" life, one very different than for what she had prepared.

But this isn't a "woe is me" type story. Instead, the tale shares how Kane's spirit (along with the support of family and friends) guides her to adapt to her new challenges, and how an unfortunate illness actually helped discover her true identity and passion...cooking.

This book has a "friendly" writing style. It isn't bogged down with medical details and jargon...it reads as if an old friend is telling you about their extraordinary experience. An extra bonus are Kane's recipes included in the book.

This book would be a great read for any book club (the recipes in the book could be used for your book club dinner!) and the topics for conversation would be endless: "what would you do if life changed your menu?" type discussion. Highly recommended!!

Awesome book from beginning to end. This is great no matter what your going through. It will really pick you up.

She fought through some incredible odds.

after you read this I suggest you drive to your local borders books and get one of Michael J Fox's books also.

This book was an awesome find. I may quite possibly be the bullseye of the target audience for this book - young, female, food-lover, and Physical Therapist novice. However I feel the book speaks to most everyone on a very personal level as Ms.Kane talks honestly about her physical and emotional struggles and wonderful lessons she learns along the way (the recipes sound amazing and because of them I give extra bonus). Highly recommend.

From the title, which I interpreted as a take off of Kicking and Screaming (which seems appropriate, too, since Adrienne was cooking/kicking and screaming her way through her challenges), to the cover of the book to the format, I loved everything about this book. I loved how the chapters started with a recipe that was integral to each chapter and I loved how I got a true understanding of the challenges she faced as her life changed from her original plan. She talks about the good, the bad and the funny and I appreciated the openness she showed in sharing her experiences. The book is engaging, smart and hard to put down and is a good lesson in living in the present and being flexible when life throws you curves.

What a remarkable story. The author recounts her recovery from a stroke in a way that makes it a vicarious and enriching experience for the reader. From beginning to (happy) ending, you will experience the full range of emotions, and will certainly be inspired. The book is also very well written. As a true chef, the author has managed to turn her lemon into a delicious and refreshing glass of lemonade. I look forward to trying out all the other recipes the book contains!

I enjoy reading books of this genre and "bumped into" Kane's book while on vacation. I really enjoyed the book. Kane made food descriptions and the mechanics of food preparation sound positively lyrical. Her passion for cooking was palpable and I was inspired to get into the kitchen to try some of the recipes she included in her book. But beyond all that, I was inspired by Kane's personal account of her physical trauma and her determination, diligence and possitive attitude to overcome these challanges. Kane is a first-time author but I look forward to future works by her.