Customer Reviews

Simply from Scratch

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I had a hard time coming up with a title for this review. How do you sum up a book about a woman whose husband died while trying to help out people in the wake of Hurricane Katrina? How do you describe that his wife has decided to enter a baking contest, although she is far from an expert cook, because the prize money is $20,000 - the exact amount her husband wanted to provide to help survivors of Hurricane Katrina?

As the book opens, Zell (short for Rose-Allen) is going on with her life but she is on the passage of grief and not handling some things very well. She can't go up in the attic, has trouble opening the last present her husband sent her and is also having issues with her heart (they started before her husband left for New Orleans).

This isn't a book which throws readers into the depths of grief from the start. Zell has a certain determination to try and get by but her pain still arrives when memories hit her. Like many of those suffering from grief, her memories are intermingled with her new life, one without her husband, Nick. He is almost like an extra character since his letters are woven into the fabric of this novel.

I was a little bit surprised that the cover didn't show Zell in a camouflage apron because she wears it as a sort of homage to her husband. It used to be his. But perhaps the cover is supposed to indicate that she has moved on.

Since this tale is partly about baking, there is a recipe at the end of the book. I haven't tried it yet so I can't note anything about whether it is delicious or not. I enjoyed this novel very much and couldn't stop reading it. At the same time, I don't think this writer has yet tapped the promise she so clearly shows in her writing.

I wasn't so riveted by this book that it will continue to haunt me. However, it reveals how Zell finds new connections around her and is a hopeful tale about moving on after the loss of a husband, partly with new people who come along, including a motherless child named Ingrid.

Like the spicy, sweet smell of gingersnaps hot from the oven, Simply From Scratch is something to be remembered. It's about a young widow, Zell, who, still raw from her husband's death, decides to enter a TV personality's baking contest. Along the way, she's befriended by a biracial nine-year-old girl, Ingrid, who is in search of the mother who abandoned her years ago. Usually, I don't like what I call "kid stories," that is, stories about some wise-beyond-her-years prepubescent, who with an abundance of cuteness and sass reveals the solution to life's dilemmas to some clueless, cantankerous adult. That's what I expected--but it's not what I received. Instead, all of the characters are incredibly real, believable, and lifelike.

Zell's voice is irresistible. Witty, self-aware and yet mired in grief and denial, she's easy to love and impossible not to cheer on. The little girl, Ingrid, has a keen sense of perception and a snazzy personality, but it's her vulnerability that makes her so compelling. Bessette didn't try to make Ingrid "cute," but instead, crafted her with the same flaws and complexities as any adult character. The book's sense of place is spot-on. I got to know the small New England town from the inside-out by its interesting characters. Zell's husband is dead, and yet the reader still hears his voice, still sees his personality, still gets a sense of his glass-half-full outlook on life. Even the cooking celebrity, Polly Pinch, sparkles from behind a television screen.

Bessette has written a novel that is all about loss and longing, and yet when I closed the cover, I felt a sense of fullness and completeness. I treasured the people in my life all the more. This is a lovely read, the perfect novel to slide from your bookshelf when you need a little comfort and a measure of inspiration.

This book is one of those rare novels that actually has the ability to transport me to another place and time. The characters are so real that I cried with them at times of sorrow and laughed and smiled with them at times of joy. I became so involved with the story that I near expected to walk out of my front door and run into Zell and Cap't Ahab. I loved this story most for its ability to carry hope from page to page amidst the sadness. For that is real life, there will always be hard and sad times, the trick is to find those aspects of hope, growth and new beginnings. This story was a refreshing reminder of this :)

This is the story of how a natural disaster in a distant state affects the residents of a small New England town. Life-long relationships are strained and forever changed when a local group of volunteers heads to New Orleans after Katrina only to lose Nick, a photojournalist along to record the relief effort, on the last day of their mission. It's more than a year later and his young widow, Rose Ellen , known as Zell, is not one step closer to recovering from her grief. Determined to move on, she decides to enter a baking contest and donate the prize money she plans to win to help the hurricane survivors. Matters become complicated when she accidentally sets her kitchen on fire and meets the new next door neighbors. This is a story of recovery. It looks honestly at life and offers hope without the usual clichés or expected resolutions. It is also a tribute to caring communities everywhere. Ms. Bessette has crafted a highly enjoyable story.

I call this book "sweet" not only because the main character Zell bakes her way through her grief, but also because it is a touching story of love and loss where the reader is reminded of what we can do for each other in life.

Zell's husband Nick dies while volunteering to reconstruct the lives of people devastated by Hurricane Katrina, but it's the people of Zell's hometown who help her reconstruct her life after her own loss. Part of what really makes this book come alive is--aside of course from the engaging, odd main character--the colorful cast of characters who fill Zell's life, and who just might fill your life a bit after reading the book.

Alicia Bessette's debut marries a big social issue with an intimate story of mourning. From the opening page there's a sad edge to the humor found in Zell's narration that neatly highlights both the setting (a wintery Massachusetts's town) and the tenuous bonds between characters that once felt united forever. The relationship between Zell and Ingrid gives the story its best, most emotionally profound moments -- moreso than the romantic moments between Zell and Ingrid's determined but struggling single-dad. I assume Bessette understands that a novel about recovering from the loss of a husband one loves completely would be made trite by a storyline that revolved solely around a love interest. More importantly, though, this is not a book about one connection but many connections -- from the bonds of local townspeople to the unexpected links between people brought together through tragedies big (Katrina) and small (the death of a husband that everyone loved).

I read this book in just two sittings, propelled forward by the voice and curiosity as to how things would work out (hoping it would not be a neat, overly sweet finish -- the kind I'm usually not satisfied by when there's a major social crisis involved). As it turns out, I was not disappointed, because Simply From Scratch, despite all the things fiction can 'get away' with, does not pretend to be about a perfect world with perfect people; instead it's a book with the invisible, difficult to vanquish villains of pain and loss. Ultimately, the Katrina backstory involving Zell's husband (whose death is directly related to his time in New Orleans) fits perfectly in terms of tone -- the details of the Katrina aftermath stand on their own and also work as a metaphor for Zell's own life disaster -- how she will have to save what she can from the rubble.

While this can be a difficult line to walk, Bessette doesn't leave the reader thinking that Katrina is a convenient contemporary issue that serves her characters. She avoids insulting the survivors of that real tragedy by celebrating survival and community in both storylines. It's a compelling use of the real life moment. In fact, I think the author would be more than capable of delving into Katrina more directly in a future book.

Simply From Scratch is a story of hope - its quirky characters and their journey through baking will warm your heart and soul! A story - not about death - but about life - and the surprises it throws at us - will remind you of how good life can be - how good people can be - and that "we are all connected".

Do you ever get the feeling that you know you're going to like a book even before you crack open the cover? As soon as I received this book, I had a feeling I was going to enjoy it. I really like the cover of the book and just from the title, the story sounded intriguing. This all was confirmed as I started reading and soon found myself engrossed in this touching story.

I loved all the characters in this book. While it took me a while to warm up to Zell, eventually I understood her character and really liked her. Even though he was deceased by the time the book opens, Nick lived in the book through Zell's memories as well as through the emails he sent her while he was in New Orleans. It was obvious that he truly loved Zell, through all her faults and her insecurities. Reading his emails and knowing the grief she felt when she found out what happened seriously made me want to cry at times. Ingrid and Garrett were wonderful to read about. I was worried at first they would come off as cardboard characters - single dad with cute kid who helps out grieving widow, but they had so much character in them. Ingrid had wonderful chemistry with Zell and really helped her to heal. And then there's EJ who was with Nick when he died and who Zell has been avoiding since. His story also deals with a possible relationship with a girl from New Orleans and I enjoyed reading his story.

I could totally relate to Zell's memory smacks. Of course mine aren't like hers at all, but I could understand what she goes through when a memory suddenly takes control of her and pulls her into it. I also loved her devotion to her dog. Animal lovers will laugh and cry about her relationship with Ahab. There's also a lot of awareness about the recovery process from Hurricane Katrina. Even though five years have passed, it's good to bring it back into attention as there are still people who are suffering from the aftermath.

I really enjoyed this book. It is an absolutely lovely read. The cover makes it look like it's a light read but it's so much more. It's a touching story about grief, love and friendship. I'm also looking forward to making Scrumpy Delight, the concoction that Zell and Ingrid create in the book. The recipe is included in the back of the book and it sounded quite delicious and easy to make. This is a wonderful debut novel from Bessette and I look forward to reading more from her in the future. HIGHLY recommended.

This is a beatiful story written by a truly talented new author. Quirky characters. A compelling story. An experience that will make any reader with a heart both laugh and cry.

This is the kind of book you will be tempted to read fast, but deserves to be read slowly. The opening hook of a mysterious package and other mini-mysteries along the way will keep you up reading way later than you should. This book brought me from one end of the tear spectrum to the other - laughing until I had tears in my eyes at the descriptions of Zell's misguided baking attempts and crying with Zel'ls emotional turmoil. The characters really take you on their journey with them.