Q is for quince, which, when fresh, gives off the scent of “roses and citrus and rich women’s perfume,” but if eaten raw is so astringent it wicks the juice from one’s mouth. M is for medlar, name-checked by Shakespeare for its crude shape, beloved by gardeners for its flowers. D is for durian, endowed with a dramatic rind and a shifting odor-peaches, old garlic. Inspired by twenty-six fruits, the essayist, poet, and pie lady Kate Lebo expertly blends natural, culinary, medical, and personal history.Ī is for aronia, berry member of the apple family, clothes-stainer, superfruit with reputed healing power. "Dazzling." -Samin Nosrat, The New York Times Magazine The book will be published on 28th April.Named a Best Book of the Year by The Atlantic, New York magazine and NPR Thank you to the publisher Pan Macmillan for the advance copy via NetGalley. If unconventional memoirs are your thing, and/or you make jams and jellies, do give it a try. If you’re looking for a history of unusual fruit, with easy-to-read descriptions and useful photographs, this book will disappoint you. The surprising, disjointed literary style was very interesting once I became used to it. There are some hard-hitting topics discussed, including cancer and abortion.
Each of these entries is an essay about an aspect of the author’s life, usually but not always relating to that fruit, plus a couple of complicated recipes with the assumption that you live in the United States and have a lot of time and money to source obscure fruit and make preserves. They are all ‘difficult’ in some way, maybe because they are very sour, or are awkward to prepare, or can make some people ill.
The somewhat contrived format is an A-Z of fruit, from aronia berries to zucchini. However, it was a good read, if rather odd. This one by Kate Lebo is more of a memoir than anything else and wasn’t quite what I expected. I’ve read a few books about fruit already, but I was happy to read another.
I find fruit fascinating, even though I don’t grow it, cook with it or even eat much of it.
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