Health & Fitness
Nancy’s Reads & Reels: "My Korean Deli” by Ben Ryder Howe; "Blood, Bones & Butter" by Gabrielle Hamilton
Two memoirs that are quite different but both very enjoyable.
A reader of my blog recommended My Korean Deli: Risking It All For A Convenience Store and I’m so glad she did. I can’t remember when I’ve read a book that made me laugh out loud.
At the time the author wrote this memoir he was an editor at Paris Review and working for George Plimpton. He is married to Gab and lives with her Korean family in their Staten Island basement.
After saving $30,000 Gab decides that her mother, Kay, could make a go of a Korean Deli and they settle on one in Brooklyn. That’s when the fun starts.
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Mr. Howe is the least likely person to work in a Korean deli -- he comes from a long line of uptight Bostonians and Gab, with her two graduate degrees and experience as a lawyer, wouldn't seem to be the ideal candidate either.
Gab's mother, Kay, has the experience and wants to work but she is getting up in her years -- and this place requires a lot of effort.
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The deli Gab, Ben and Kay choose to begin their foray into retail is not only rundown and saddled with Dwayne, a longtime employee who
is wary of change, but with odd ball customers who are also resistant to change. Meanwhile, Ben continues his work at the Paris Review, which is run in such a haphazard fashion that you wonder how they ever go to press.
Oddly enough, Ben genuinely enjoys working at the deli and even living in the basement of his in-law's home.
It’s hard to say which is the most humorous -- the deli or the offices of the Paris Review.
Whether you’re a foodie or not you will enjoy Blood, Bones & Butter by Gabrielle Hamilton.
Say you have issues with your parents, say you want to travel to Europe with little money, say you start a restaurant in New York on the spur of the moment, say you marry an Italian, say you have two babies while running a restaurant and traveling to Italy -- then you would be Gabrielle Hamilton.
Ms. Hamilton is a restaurant owner, mother, chef and fine writer. She writes her book with complete candor and it is unlikely that you won’t have an opinion once you finish reading her book. She has a passion for life that you have to envy.
Buy or borrow Blood, Bones & Butter.
