Every American recovering from a Thanksgiving Dinner will relate to this ...
Anyone could've told you with their eyes shut what food they'd eat: Marlon's potato dish, a roast chicken and Bufty's bread, its cosy scent reaching out to greet you; Judy's rice salad; Rita's tabbouleh, flecked with mint and parsley from the garden; splintered wedges of Sissy's spinach and mushroom filo pie; minted new potatoes; sliced cucumbers in white vinegar; tomato wedges, red as the approaching sunset.
This is not America. It is New Zealand in the Spring, not the Fall, and this is Hood's Landing by Laura Vincent, a writer who is creating waves Downunder.
The setting is a festival dinner, arranged and organized by the family matriarch, a ritual that is going to reveal hidden secrets as plates are removed and more food set out on the table. The family is relaxed ... except for one, who is bracing herself to confide her diagnosis of cancer. Thus, while she waits, the idle chat and lazy debates turn into something more meaningful. As the reunion evolves and unravels, shoddy pasts, ambiguous futures and the imperfect bonds that tie family together come to light, sometimes with shock effect, other times with humor.
There is much about food, which for me was an outstanding feature of the book. Laura Vincent is a very popular food blogger, and the author of a book, Hungry and Frozen, that features most grabbable recipes. (All of them have ingredients translated into the American version, if that helps!) Hood's Landing is her debut novel, and is reaping rave reviews in her home country.
Well worth a read. Laura Vincent loves her words, and casts them at her readers like a shower of rose petals. Enjoy.
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