Michelle Maisto

New York City freelance author Michelle expounds on her wedding plans, wedding fears, wedding exercise regime, & wedding clothes. What part of this preparation is her own (modern woman! no red meat!) and what is baggage from the past (Italian grandparents, her parent's divorce)?

And more importantly - what the hell are they going to eat for dinner? It cannot be too expensive (hello, they're saving for a wedding) and cannot be planned in advance - Michelle cringes - that would not take show more advantage of the wide variety of culianary possibilities, some delightful, which New York has on offer, constantly, like a courtesan spreading her wares. And besides - Rich needs to eat what he wants right then. Planning ahead? Quelle horreur!

Maisto describes herself as 'controlling'; Rich calls her a little dictator. It's no surprise that this book is carefully written, waxing poetic in controlled descriptions of aubergine and squid and the expression of water droplets on the underside of kale leaves.
And it's no surprise that all this artfulness leads exactly nowhere - no denounment, no plot, no form whatsoever, just a loose collection of ideas about love and marriage and fate and the combination of holiday plans and an exercise regime and a few recipes thrown in for the element of surprise.

Sloppy juxtaposition is no surprise at all nowadays; what would be a surprise, what I would like, is a finished work. Maisto says, in NYC, all your energy is expended just staying in one place. It must be comforting to live on a treadmill - you're never going to go anywhere, so you don't have to worry about what you do when you get there. show less

Really enjoyed this book, the author takes something routine and derives meanings from it. The everyday task of figuring out what to have for dinner is complicated when an Italian-American lives with a Chinese-American, each person bringing his/her favorites and prejudices to the dinner table. Also provides a non-mushy look at relationships and family ties reflected through food, the universal connection.