Stuffed

Volk, Patricia. Stuffed: Adventures of a Restaurant Family.Hampton Falls: Beeler Large Print, 2001.

I thoroughly enjoyed Stuffed. I found it to be funny and clever and culturally informative. Don’t let the title deceive you. The story does not center around a restaurant. In fact, Volk barely makes mention of the family establishment(s). Instead, Volk offers insight into memories of her family through foodstuff. A cookie. Meat. Soup. Chocolate. Each morsel of food is an opportunity to tell a small tale about a great-grandfather, her aunts, a sister. Probably the most profound chapter is the death of her father. The loss is profound, the love endless. I think the morale of the story, if any, is love your family. Warts and all.

Best lines: “I don’t know if I could live without my sister…I love her as much as I love me” (p 33). C’est vrai. Another line: “You could eat off her floors if you don’t mind the taste of Pine-Sol” (p 68). And one more, “She learned to live with the compromise of pain” (p 119). I could go on, but I won’t.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter called “Food For Thought” (p 92).

PS~ a side note on the large print. No, I’m not going blind. I read this copy because it was the only one within reach. Oddly enough I enjoyed it being so big.