The Family Dinner: A Celebration of Love, Laughter, and Leftovers [Hardcover]

Linda Sunshine (Author), Mary Tiegreen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 11, 2003

The family dinner is the one moment during the day when we sit down together to enjoy a good meal, engage in lively conversation, and, too often, experience mass hysteria.

The family table is also a place where we gather in times of celebration and sadness, to embrace food and each other. “The table is a place of communion for life’s large and small events,” writes master chef Art Smith.

And all of us have experienced the enlightenment of the holiday meal. “You think you have a handle on God, the Universe, and the Great White Light until you go home for Thanksgiving,” says Shirley MacLaine. “In an hour, you realize how far you’ve got to go and who is the real turkey.”

In The Family Dinner, authors Linda Sunshine and Mary Tiegreen celebrate this phenomenon of family life with photographs and written excerpts from a wide spectrum of families—rich and poor, immigrant and suburban, gourmet and kitchen-challenged. With love, grace, and a big dollop of humor, the authors remind us that family dinners, however defined or indigestible, exemplify who we are and where we came from.

“Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family. Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one,” says Jane Howard.

So here is the perfect gift book for anyone who cooks for you or eats with you, and for all of us who gather together around a table.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

An ode to the joys of meatloaf and Campbell's soup, Sunshine and Tiegreen's compact book reveres that American family ritual: the family dinner. The authors-longtime friends and collaborators on books about shoes, dogs and other subjects-give the book a decidedly 1950s feel to play up the nostalgia for a time when Mom whipped up a hearty meal while Dad poured himself a cocktail and loosened his tie to dig in. Slightly idealistic ("family dinners establish the rhythm of family life and define who we are, where we come from, and where we might expect to be going"), the authors root their book in vintage photos and concepts. There's a photograph of a big Italian family-men in sleeveless undershirts and women with their hair done up-seated at a table replete with carafes of red wine; and another of a perky housewife, beaming as she takes a bottle of milk out of the fridge. Mini-essays and quotes from Calvin Trillin, Nora Ephron, Ruth Reichl and others complement the black and white photos. While corny at times, Sunshine and Tiegreen's homage is also wistful and oddly reassuring.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From the Inside Flap

The family dinner is the one moment during the day when we sit down together to enjoy a good meal, engage in lively conversation, and, too often, experience mass hysteria.

The family table is also a place where we gather in times of celebration and sadness, to embrace food and each other. "The table is a place of communion for life's large and small events," writes master chef Art Smith.

And all of us have experienced the enlightenment of the holiday meal. "You think you have a handle on God, the Universe, and the Great White Light until you go home for Thanksgiving," says Shirley MacLaine. "In an hour, you realize how far you've got to go and who is the real turkey."

In The Family Dinner, authors Linda Sunshine and Mary Tiegreen celebrate this phenomenon of family life with photographs and written excerpts from a wide spectrum of families—rich and poor, immigrant and suburban, gourmet and kitchen-challenged. With love, grace, and a big dollop of humor, the authors remind us that family dinners, however defined or indigestible, exemplify who we are and where we came from.

"Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family. Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one," says Jane Howard.

So here is the perfect gift book for anyone who cooks for you or eats with you, and for all of us who gather together around a table.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 112 pages
• Publisher: Clarkson Potter; 1 edition (March 11, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400045924
• ISBN-13: 978-1400045921
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 6.8 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,431,087 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Linda Sunshine was born in Brooklyn and raised in New Jersey. She lived in NYC and worked in publishing for many years, most recently as Editorial Director at Stewart, Tabori & Chang. She is the author of more than 50 books, including the NY Times bestseller, Plain Jane Works Out. She has published many books about the making of such movies as Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, Angels & Demons, Monsters vs. Aliens, Memoirs of a Geisha, Ray, Vanity Fair, and Sideways. She lives in Los Angeles, a block from Paramount Studio.