We Are What We Ate: 24 Memories of Food ,A Share Our Strength Book [Paperback]

Mark Winegardner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 15, 1998

From Paul Auster on a Provençal onion tart to Lorrie Moore on a Chinese take-out Christmas dinner, these delectable essays by well-known american writers explore the meaning of food in our lives and our culture. With contributions by Julia Alvarez, Madison Smartt Bell, Gish Jen, Bobby Ann Mason, Richard Russo, Lee Smith, and many others.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In We Are What We Ate: 24 Memories of Food, some of America's best writers recall how food has defined their existence. "In my house, curry would have been more exotic than heroin," professes editor Mark Winegardner in the introduction. "Maybe it's a family thing. Maybe it's the potassium benzoate," explains Jill McCorkle in her hilarious admission to a life of junk-food addiction. Food is at once the most common and most personal experience we all have, and in these 24 essays, the authors explore the varied experiences that accompany our sustenance. This includes Paul Auster recalling an onion tart in Provence that he believed to be his last meal, and in the shortest and most poignant essay, Gita Mehta writes of how hard it is to be hungry in the land of plenty. All of the essays were donated by the writers, and the profits from We Are What We Ate will benefit Share Our Strength, a program to alleviate and prevent hunger in the United States and around the world. Mark Winegardner has done an excellent job of assembling this diverse and entertaining collection of essays illustrating the immense variety of the American food experience. From junk food to gourmet fare, from those blessed with the heritage of taste to those of us with a white-bread tradition, We Are What We Ate offers good food and good writing for all. --Mark O. Howerton

Review

"'I grew up in two-story brick house that never had an onion in it,' writes Winegardner in his introduction to the essays and reminiscences contributed by noted authors for the benefit of Share Our Strength, the national anti-hunger organization that also sponsors the annual Writers Harvest National Reading Day (Oct. 29th this year). Winegardner, who directs the creative writing program at Florida State University, recalls the spiceless meals of his youth to illustrate how food can provoke autobiography - and it's not just a matter of Proust and his madeleine. Here, julia Alvarez writes about being a picky eater, Jill McCorkle confesses to being a junk-food junkie ('My Chee-to Heart'), Stewart O'Nan recalls working as dishwasher for a synagogue caterer and Jessica B. Harris makes the connection between the collards her family cooks to the greens prepared by ancestors an ocean away." -- The Orlando Sentinel, October 18, 1998

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Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books (October 15, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0156006235
• ISBN-13: 978-0156006231
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #749,463 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Mark Winegardner was born and raised in Bryan, Ohio, near Exit 2, a town of 8,000 which supplies the world with its Dum-Dum suckers and Etch-a-Sketches. His parents owned an RV dealership there, and every summer he traveled with his family across the USA in various travel trailers and motorhomes. By the time he was 15, he had been in all 48 contiguous states. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude from Miami University and went on to receive a master of fine arts degree in fiction writing from George Mason University. He published his first book at age 26, while still in graduate school. He has taught at Miami, George Mason, George Washington, and John Carroll Universities, and is now a professor in the creative writing program at Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida.

Winegardner has won grants, fellowships and residencies from the Ohio Arts Council, the Lilly Endowment, the Ragdale Foundation, the Sewanee Writers Conference and the Corporation of Yaddo. His books have been chosen as among the best of the year by the New York Times Book Review, Chicago Sun-Times, Los Angeles Times, the New York Public Library, and USA Today. His work has appeared in GQ, Playboy, Ploughshares, TriQuarterly, DoubleTake, Family Circle, The Sporting News, Witness, Story Quarterly, American Short Fiction, Ladies Home Journal, Parents and The New York Times Magazine. Several of his stories have been chosen as Distinguished Stories of the Year in The Best American Short Stories.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A deliciously refreshing read, July 19, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: We Are What We Ate: 24 Memories of Food ,A Share Our Strength Book (Paperback)

I thoroughly enjoyed We Are What We Ate. With few exceptions, the stories were endearing, funny, and very, very real. I loved the tribute to junk food and the touching memoir of the onion pie. A mouth-watering, heart-touching treasure, profits from this book also benefit Save Our Strength, an anti-hunger organization.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable, June 10, 2001

By 

S. Gardner (Lincoln, Nebraska, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: We Are What We Ate: 24 Memories of Food ,A Share Our Strength Book (Paperback)

This is a pleasant read. It's an ecelctic mix of essays around the subject of food. I have pulled out a few essays for my husband's kids to read, to show them how some other people in the world approach the dinner table. Long after having read it, I still think about some of the essays and I will be sure to pick it up and read it again sometime. If you like this genre of writing, you'll enjoy this little book.