Stir

May 4, 2015
A sudden brain aneurysm and subsequent infection derailed the life plans of Fechtor, a 28-year-old married Harvard grad student, requiring her to undergo a new orientation toward food and the senses. In this straightforward chronicle of her collapse at the treadmill in 2008 while at a convention in rural Vermont, Fechtor relives a painful, confusing episode in the trauma center in Burlington, where she had surgery to stop the bleeding, lost vision in her left eye, and endured a stint in rehab. Buoyed by her devoted husband, Eli, and her Ohio-based family, Fechtor was in excellent hands, and food was brought and offered for healing and comfort, such as Aunt Leslie’s chicken soup. But once she got home to Cambridge, Mass., many of her favorite foods had lost their appeal, like the almond macaroons from her local Hi-Rise bakery. After a raging infection, requiring surgery that took out a portion of her forehead and left her without a sense of smell, a period of “medium dreadful” settled in and she sometimes panicked at her debilitation. Plastic surgery eventually reconstructed her face, and Fechtor slowly returned to cooking and graduate work. In alternate chapters, Fechtor discusses marriage, school, and healing, and a plunge into a food blog, “Sweet Almandine,” to focus her burgeoning hunger and taste. The writing is solid and the recipes, such as sweet potato curry latkes and challah, are basic with a Jewish slant.

May 1, 2015
Dealing with the aftereffects of an aneurysm through a love of cooking. In 2008, Fechtor was moving into adulthood in a manner that could be described as ordinary. She had fallen in love, gotten married, and made her way through undergraduate school and into graduate studies at Harvard. She loved exercise, particularly running. One morning, a storm kept her from running outside, which turned out to be somewhat fortunate-if she hadn't been on a treadmill when the aneurysm happened, she would have been much less likely to get help quickly enough. After the aneurysm, the author underwent multiple surgeries, with the standard caveats from providers about the risks and the benefits. When she awoke, she was told that, yes, she would live, but no, not like before: her sense of smell, the vision in one eye, her ability to speak as confidently as in the past, her sense of self were all changed. Physical therapy progressed slowly; there hadn't been any neurological damage, but a month in bed had left her muscles weakened and her balance off-kilter. She began hearing that common refrain from well-meaning people: "everything happens for a reason." She challenged that cliche-things don't happen for a reason, but we make reasons for the things that happen. Her process of making meaning of the accident and the aftermath came to her by way of a constant throughout the many shifts of her earlier years: a love for food, flavors, and cooking. She writes with clarity and obvious joy about the foods that have meant so much to her, and she includes the recipes (she doesn't believe in secret recipes) so as to pass it forward. The recipes are simple and uncomplicated; many of them have a handful of ingredients but are prepared in a way that might surprise you. Fechtor's book could be described the same way.

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May 15, 2015

Fechtor (sweetamandine.com) opens by recounting her burst brain aneurysm, sustained when she was a seemingly healthy 28-year-old graduate student and budding food blogger. Chapters present crystalline recollections of the immediate aftermath as she stumbled off a treadmill and continue through a recovery complicated by infection, loss of smell, and blindness in one eye. She describes how wearing a football-style helmet for almost a year taught her how to cope with unwanted attention from strangers as well as how to graciously relinquish control and depend on family and friends. The author doesn't focus on nutritional advice or pronounce certain foods as curative but instead narrates her belief that planning, cooking, and eating with loved ones brought back her sense of self and her place in the world. This memoir examines cooking and eating as social ritual and tells the moving story of how Fechtor coped with a "detour [that became] its own path" in her life. Recipes conclude each chapter, often multistep and designed to be served at a family dinner or feed a crowd. VERDICT Recommended for those who enjoy medical memoirs with a concentration on food and cooking. The setting in and around Boston, and the author's strong Jewish faith will add interest for some readers.--Maggie Knapp, Trinity Valley Sch., Fort Worth, TX

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