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The Gastronomical Me Paperback – October 10, 1989

by M. F. K. Fisher (Author)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 211 ratings
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In 1929, a newly married M.F.K. Fisher said goodbye to a milquetoast American culinary upbringing and sailed with her husband to Dijon, where she tasted real French cooking for the first time. The Gastronomical Me is a chronicle of her passionate embrace of a whole new way of eating, drinking, and celebrating the senses. As she recounts memorable meals shared with an assortment of eccentric and fascinating characters, set against a backdrop of mounting pre-war tensions, we witness the formation not only of her taste but of her character and her prodigious talent.

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Previous page
  1. Print length
    272 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    North Point Press
  4. Publication date
    October 10, 1989
  5. Dimensions
    5.55 x 0.7 x 7.95 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0865473927
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0865473928
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

M. F. K. Fisher sees life stomach first. The New York Times said "She spit Puritan restraint out like a dull wine and made a life of savoring the slow, sensual pleasures of the table." And between meals, she savored the pleasures of men and travel, too. She recalls California in 1912, life in France in the 1930s, and traveling solo to Mexico in 1941. Her first oyster is a beautiful story, about adolescence and the glory of the briny mollusk, and her humor is as forthright as her taste at table.

Review

“I do not know of any one in the United States who writes better prose.” ―W.H. Auden

“Poet of the appetites.” ―John Updike

“Because The Gastronomical Me is autobiographical, following Mrs. Fisher from childhood to widowhood in different countries, we are able to see its food not only as a matter of personal taste, but as a perpetual emotional and social force within a life. Here are meals as seductions, educations, diplomacies, communions. Unique among the classics of gastronomic writing, with its glamorous but not glamorized settings, its wartime drama and its powerful love story, The Gastronomical Me is a book about adult loss, survival, and love.” ―Patricia Storace, The New York Review of Books

“She writes about fleeting tastes and feasts vividly, excitingly, sensuously, exquisitely. There is almost a wicked thrill in following her uninhibited track through the glories of the good life.” ―James Beard

“She writes about food as others do about love, but rather better.” ―Clifton Fadiman

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ North Point Press; Edition Unstated (October 10, 1989)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 272 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0865473927
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0865473928
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 8 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.55 x 0.7 x 7.95 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 211 ratings

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Bee Wilson

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Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
211 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

northkona
5.0 out of 5 stars Splendid sketches of the making of a food writer
Reviewed in the United States on January 10, 2010
Verified Purchase
This is a great read for food lovers and francophiles. It isnt really a travel book at all, but Fisher's highly personal and frequently witty account of the experiences that shaped her thinking and made her one of the most noted food writers of the 20th century.

Fisher was an American, and her adult life in France began in 1929 when she and her new husband moved to Dijon. One quickly appreciates how difficult her experiences as a newcomer must have been -- no stove, no refrigerator, no heating in winter. Some reviewers didn't like the way the book left gaps in her personal life story. That's true, but it isnt a standard biography, it's a literary sketch book.

If you're looking for a travel book, this isn't one. Stylistically, because this book was written 65 or 70 years ago, there is no comparison between it and much later accounts of spending a year in Provence, touring the wine country, or houseboating on the Seine.

Finally, one reviewer here thought the last part of the book about her time in Mexico seemed out of place. I agree, so if you get the book and read everything but the bit about the Mexican soujourn, you will have gotten to the heart of what I think she wanted us to know, anyway.
10 people found this helpful
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Kathryn look
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book
Reviewed in the United States on December 14, 2022
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So well written and a great gift for a foodie.
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Adriana P.
4.0 out of 5 stars Four stars is too generous but three and half is too stingy…
Reviewed in the United States on December 12, 2021
Verified Purchase
The very first story and the very last will stay with me forever but everything in between is a bit soft.
2 people found this helpful
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Zoe
5.0 out of 5 stars MFK Fisher lives!
Reviewed in the United States on May 30, 2013
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This is a replacement for a book I lost in moving. I love, adore MFK Fisher! There are 2 essays in the book that I have read and re-read and will read again: one called "Define This Word" from 1936, and another called "I Remember Three Restauants" from about the same time, are stories that get inside your head and snuggle down for a nap, to awaken at unforseen moments.
MFK Fisher has largely been forgotten now, I'm afraid, but in my mind is of the same stature of Julia Child, although earlier: b. in1908 and d. in '92, she traveled and cooked and wrote.
7 people found this helpful
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jumpy1
5.0 out of 5 stars I loved it in spite of myself
Reviewed in the United States on September 30, 2000
Verified Purchase
First I should admit I'm not a usual fan of MFK Fisher. I find her rambling and neurotic style a bit unsettling. Even in this book, one minute she's a snob and the next minute ... well I don't want to give it away. Nonethless, I loved it through and through. Much less neurotic or rambling than her other stuff. Marvelous stories. Wonderful points of view coming through. I really loved the story about that cook in her childhood who ... okay, I won't tell. If you like autobiography, this is a good one.
29 people found this helpful
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C. Delaney
3.0 out of 5 stars Should have read this years ago
Reviewed in the United States on October 20, 2013
Verified Purchase
Thought this read tediously, maybe reading tastes have changed since it was published first. In addition, her tone is snobbish, like her finishing school
One person found this helpful
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hiram
5.0 out of 5 stars the wonderful peach pie she describes having had as a child
Reviewed in the United States on August 7, 2017
Verified Purchase
M.F.K. Fisher's writing is graceful and vivid in this lovely little book. One can picture, indeed almost taste, the wonderful peach pie she describes having had as a child. A delightful read, highly recommended.
4 people found this helpful
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Rosalind Brackenbury
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on March 25, 2018
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I love her zest for life - and food.
3 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

stoaty1
5.0 out of 5 stars 5 stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 29, 2023
Verified Purchase
For both the writing and the food.
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Andrew G. Matthews
5.0 out of 5 stars Stunning
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 28, 2017
Verified Purchase
This is a wonderful book, so beautifully written that many of the sentences made me gasp with pleasure. I'm not a foodie, or a particular fan of autobiography, but to be in company with MFK Fisher is like being (seriously) at the same table as Hemingway, Fitzgerald and Lillian Hellman. Don't be put off by the title, this is a joy.
3 people found this helpful
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Patrick Skinner
4.0 out of 5 stars Ageless food sense, set down in superb prose.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 6, 2023
Verified Purchase
Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher has a fulsome name and led as full a life. She ran the gamut of human emotions and experiences and wrote about them graphically, brilliantly. This was one of my first food themed biographies, bought as a young man. Now in the twilight zone, it is, along with a few others (several of them by this amazing woman) that I treasure and re-read. If you love the kitchen and the table, and you haven't read it (where have you been?) I propose you do so, soon!
One person found this helpful
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erin pizzey
5.0 out of 5 stars I loved this book
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 19, 2019
Verified Purchase
The author has a curious flat way of telling her life experiences that I found irritating but then I fell into her world and revelled in her immense ability to savor her love, her food and her travels with such intensity that I felt at one with her.
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Steve T
5.0 out of 5 stars If you like humorous, eventful autobiography you will love this
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 21, 2021
Verified Purchase
Lively absorbing stories about people, places and food in France before WW2
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