থেকে Kamaram, Telangana 506342, India
Loved this. Thanks to Connie for her Goodreads review, because I would never have picked it up otherwise. Ridiculously good writing about growing up, love, the Second World War, loss, travel, and food, etc. and nice loose approach to memoir. Agree with Connie that some of the early chapters are particularly lovely. On being alone with his daughters for a car trip without their mother, her father "saw us for the first time as two little brown humans who were fun." There's an incredible chapter about oysters and the all-girls' boarding school Christmas dance which I've read about three times. And a charming description of lettuce, cream cheese and anchovy, and ginger ale orgies that she, her cousin, and her cousin's roommate indulged in at their faraway Illinois college in 1927-1928: "We would lock the door, and mix the cheese and anchovy together and open the ginger ale. Then we would toast ourselves solemnly in our toothbrush mugs, loosen the belts on our woolen bathrobes, and tear into that crisp cool delightful lettuce like three starved rabbits. Now and then one or another of us would get up, go to a window and open it, bare her little breasts to the cold sweep of air, and intone dramatically, "Pneu-mo-o-o-onia!" Then we would all burst into completely helpless giggles, until we had laughed enough to hold a little more lettuce." It occurs to me that this is not so different from some of my own college experiences.