TRUTH, Travel and Food

I have finished M.F.K. Fisher's "As They Were", a collection of autobiographical essays, short stories, and a feature article.  The pieces are mostly about TRUTH, but also about travel, food, remembering, and looking forward.

Good Book!

I wrote here about the exceptional short story, "The Flame and The Ash Thereof".

Following on are memoir pieces about a childhood visit to an elegant restaurant, her first such dining experience; two rustic kitchens in Provence and how she managed to keep herself and her daughters in provisions; a trip to Dijon to see for herself a hotel with running taps of red and white wine piped into some of the rooms.  She also writes about the lonely winter trip to Arles and Avignon after leaving the 1970 food writers gathering as well as several fascinating accounts of trips to Europe by freighter from San Francisco. One beautiful piece pays homage to the Gare de Lyon, the iconic Paris train station for Mediterranean-bound travelers.

Gare de Lyon

The final essay is about MFK's decision to build "Last House" and remain in California rather than retire to France as she always thought she would do. She says she is grateful for the chance to CHOOSE where to live out her days.

All of the stories collected here are very fine, but for me, two memoir/fiction pieces stand out.  I have already mentioned and written about "The Flame and the Ash Thereof".  The other piece, "The Wind Chill Factor: A Problem of Mind and Matter", is a powerful meditation on keeping one's sanity.

"Mrs. Thayer" is staying in a friend's cabin in the dunes at the tip of Long Island when a Nor'easter hits and blizzard conditions keep her housebound for six days and nights, alone. She wills herself to stay sane as the doors ice shut and the cabin walls groan through the onslaught of wind and driven snow.

"The wind had become different.  Its steady pressure of sound had changed to a spasmodic violence. Snow was stinging against the northern and western storm windows, and Mrs. Thayer knew that the doors on those sides were frozen shut. It did not matter. A door to the outside place where people changed bathing suits in the summer began to bang hard, in irregular patterns. It is unhinged, she said with a sly grin. It did not matter either. The whole thing she must work on was to keep herself inside her own skin, and she was the only one there to do it, and with real sweat she did."

I have a personal connection to someone who went through a similar ordeal, alone, in a major hurricane. Her description of the experience came to mind as I read  Mrs. Thayer's account.  Very compelling writing.

Finally, this collection of stories weaves a tale of a woman, mostly on her own, moving through life observing the world, and telling us how things REALLY are. And, in the end, isn't what is TRUE the most important thing?