Broccoli and Other Tales of Food and Love | Lara Vapnyar

Broccoli and Other Tales of Food and Love | Lara Vapnyar | A marvelous collection of gripping, witty, charming, and entertaining stories tinged with sadness too.

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Broccoli and Other...

	Broccoli and Other Tales of Food and Love Lara Vapnyar Pantheon, 2008 - 160 pages average customer review:based on 5 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

In a triumphant return to the short story, the form in which she made her extraordinary debut with There Are Jews in My House, Lara Vapnyar gives us a delightful new collection in which food and love intersect, along with their overlapping pleasures, frustrations, and deep associations in the lives of her unforgettable characters.

From ?Broccoli? to ?Borscht? to ?Puffed Rice and Meatballs,? each of these new stories invites us into the uniquely captivating private worlds of Vapnyar?s Eastern European émigrés. There?s Nina, a recent arrival from Russia, for whom the colorful abundance of the vegetable markets in New York represents her own fresh hopes and dreams. . . Luda and Milena, who battle over a widower in their English class with competing recipes for cheese puffs, spinach pies, and meatballs . . . Sergey, who finds more comfort in the borscht made by a paid female companion than in her sexual ministrations. Each of the women and men who inhabit these witty, tender, and beautifully observed stories needs and longs for the taste and smell of home, wherever--and with whomever--that may turn out to be.

Russian in its wit and in many of its rich details, but American in its insistence on the quest for personal happiness, however provisional and however high the cost, Broccoli and Other Tales of Food and Love masterfully illuminates a very particular facet of desire with entirely charming results.

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Elegant Gems

Ms.Vapnyar has created here six elegant gems which cover the hopes, dreams and disappointments in the Russian emigree community. However, despite this focus on the Russian community in America these stories are universal, which is what makes them most memorable.

The stories amazingly all revolve around humble foods. A head of broccoli becomes a symbol of possibility for a deserted woman. A bowl of borscht represents comfort to an emigree dealing with the demands of a new country. A bag of puffed rice is a reminder of a traumatic event in a young girl's life.

All of the stories are tinged with the sadness of a place, a person, a dream left behind. Ms. Vapnyar deserves a wide audience for her beautiful prose.

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A marvelous collection of gripping, witty, charming, and entertaining stories tinged with sadness too.

These wonderful, carefully structured short stories are remarkable for the bewildering range of emotions they evoke in a reader. Each story is charming, gripping, entertaining, humorous, and highly readable. As one would sprinkle garlic salt and pepper flakes on a slice of pizza to enhance its taste, the author has generously sprinkled humor in all these stories; but there is a tinge of sadness, a sense of melancholy, rippling through all these stories also.

All the stories are well written, of course, but the stories: "Luda and Milena", "Broccoli", "Borscht" and "Puffed Rice and Meatballs" are extraordinary, with vivid descriptions, witty observations, and hilarious comments, and the characters perfectly drawn.

In the very funny but sad story, "Luda and Milena", the two elderly women are in search of a companion, and they hope to catch Aron Skolnik, the only eligible man in their English class, and vie for his attention. When the teacher declares Friday "The International Feast day", each Friday the students bring dishes popular in their countries. Neither of the women is fond of cooking, but Luda bakes spinach pie, any way, and Melina bakes cheese puffs. The competition builds, and one fine Friday they both bring meatballs. Poor Aron Skolnik chokes to death while gulping down the meatballs. The women feel relieved in a way because they wouldn't have to cook for him any more!

Here is an example of the author's sense of humor, from the story "Salad Olivier": "Not only would the boyfriend "relieve" my father, he would also explain to us all the mysterious letters we got from banks, doctors, and gas and electric companies. He would help us move to a bigger, nicer place."

Lara Vapnyar's prose is elegant and smooth-flowing: "Later, on the date, the man casually looked at his toes, but at the same time he discreetly scrutinized me, estimating the size of my breasts, the shape of the legs concealed by my slacks, trying to guess what I would and wouldn't do, trying to guess what was wrong with me (I'd agreed to a blind date, there must be something wrong), searching for flaws, finding them, finding the ones I'd been afraid that he'd find, finding ones I hadn't even known about."

At the end of the book there is a "Roundup of Recipes," which, people who love to cook, or experiment in their kitchen, might enjoy.

Even though Lara Vapnyar learnt English only after immigrating to the USA in 1994, she writes elegantly, and with an impressive style, too, just like Joseph Conrad, the great Polish writer who learnt English only in his adulthood, and earned the recognition as the greatest master of English prose.

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Excellent!

Another book from the author who grips with witty and creative writing. My favorite thing about Lara Vapnyar's stories is how masterfully she blends true life with fiction. While a lot of her ideas are drawn from the memories of growing up in the Soviet Union and later immigrating to the US, in the end they always make you wonder where exactly the transition was, and at which point a story took that sharp turn into the world of creativity, almost fantasy or farse.
FYI: one definitely true statement - the snow really does not crunch here the same way it did back in Russia...
If this is your first Vapnyar book, you also owe to yourself to read the other two: "There are Jews in My House", and "Memoirs of Muse".
One thing I found evident reading her books is how her English skills have progressed. While the early stories had the same witty and warm feeling, sometimes the diction felt a little too much like a word for word translation from Russian. I have a good fortune being fluent in both English and Russian, and was able to pick up on subtle details like that.
Overall, a great book, with a lot of powerful ideas packed in a small package.

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A Tasty Short Story Collection

In a triumphant return to the short story form of her extraordinary debut with There Are Jews in My House, Lara Vapnyar gives us a delightful new collection in which food and love intersect, along with their overlapping pleasures, frustrations, and deep associations in the lives of her unforgettable characters.

Each story invites us into the uniquely captivating private worlds of Vapnyar's Eastern European native land. Even though Lara Vapnyar learned English only after immigrating to the USA in 1994, her writing is tasteful and vivid. Sprinkled with humor and the benevolence of humankind, this slim volume is a page-turner.

The first story, "A Bunch of Broccoli on the Third Shelf," opens with a vegetable lover named Nina who has recently arrived from Russia. Nina connects with food preferably to those around her. The descriptions of the vegetables make the reader sense them, the smell of them and the feel of them. The colorful abundance of the vegetable markets in New York represents her own fresh hopes and dreams. When Nina's husband leaves her, Nina's sister rummages through the refrigerator and remarks: "You've got the whole vegetable graveyard in here."

In "Puffed Rice and Meatballs," Katya yields to the whims of her lover in pillow talk. He tries to engage her in a discussion about the horror of communism but she changes the subject and recounts her first sexual experience to him instead. When she was in preschool, a young boy wanted to play "I'll show you mine and you show me yours," and she vividly recalls children eating from plates piled high with meatballs, countering the notion of food scarcity. Later at home, drinking dark tea and dipping into a jar of walnut jam, Katya finds the jam "too sugary and wrong." She's disgusted with herself and her story.

The journey ends with a handful of recipes, and her recipe for lethally fatty meatballs comes with a warning: "If you need to kill yourself or another person and don't mind that the process will be slow and painful, here is the recipe." These stories are remarkable for the twists and turns of emotions they evoke in a reader.

"They champed, they crunched, they jingled their forks, they clinked glasses."

Armchair Interviews says: The volume may be slim, but the characters are full of depth and vitality. Its like having dessert before dinner, very indulgent, yet satisfying.

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Fun but not fantastic

After reading the other reviews and the NYT review, I thought I would be blown away by these stories. As with movies, the mismatch of expectations turned into disappointment.

The stories are fun to read. I am glad I read the book. But I walked away thinking "so what" much more than "wow, gripping insight, I must order everything else she has written".

Short story writing is tough, and the author is certainly able to portray the characters quickly and with depth and skill. There are particular aspects of certain characters or certain stories that are very memorable. She moves quickly, and for the most part conveys action in the inaction of every day life. But sometimes I wanted a little more. A little more of the feelings about the wife left behind, a little more explicit emotion rather than implied.

It is a quick and pleasant read, but not fantastic.

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