Love & saffron : a novel of friendship, food, and love

Title:

Author:

Fay, Kim. author.

Personal Author:

Fay, Kim. author.

ISBN:

9780593419335

Physical Description:

193 pages : illustrations ; 21 cm

Abstract:

Joan Bergstrom lives in Los Angeles and is just starting out as a writer for the newspaper food pages. Imogen Fortier lives on Camano Island outside Seattle, writing a monthly column for a Pacific Northwest magazine-- and she's never tasted fresh garlic, exotic fare in the Northwest of the sixties. When Joan sends a fan letter-- and a gift of saffron-- the two women's letters build a closeness that sustains them through the Cuban Missile Crisis, the assassination of President Kennedy, and the unexpected in their own lives. Imogen's decades-long marriage blossoms into something new and exciting, and in turn, Joan learns that true love does not always come in the form we expect it to. -- adapted from Goodreads info

Subject Term:

Female friendship -- Fiction.

Food writers -- Fiction.

Nineteen sixties -- Fiction.

Geographic Term:

Los Angeles (Calif.) -- Fiction.

Camano Island (Wash.) -- Fiction.

Genre:

Historical fiction.

Epistolary fiction.

Summary:

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Material Type	Shelf Number	Status
Searching... Belmont	Book	FICTION FAY	Searching... Unknown
Searching... East End	Book	FICTION FAY	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Ginter Park	Book	FICTION FAY	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Main Library	Book	FICTION FAY	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

The Instant National Bestseller and #1 Indie Next Pick

In the vein of the classic 84, Charing Cross Road , this witty and tender novel follows two women in 1960s America as they discover that food really does connect us all, and that friendship and laughter are the best medicine.

When twenty-seven-year-old Joan Bergstrom sends a fan letter--as well as a gift of saffron--to fifty-nine-year-old Imogen Fortier, a life-changing friendship begins. Joan lives in Los Angeles and is just starting out as a writer for the newspaper food pages. Imogen lives on Camano Island outside Seattle, writing a monthly column for a Pacific Northwest magazine, and while she can hunt elk and dig for clams, she's never tasted fresh garlic--exotic fare in the Northwest of the sixties. As the two women commune through their letters, they build a closeness that sustains them through the Cuban Missile Crisis, the assassination of President Kennedy, and the unexpected in their own lives.

Food and a good life--they can't be separated. It is a discovery the women share, not only with each other, but with the men in their lives. Because of her correspondence with Joan, Imogen's decades-long marriage blossoms into something new and exciting, and in turn, Joan learns that true love does not always come in the form we expect it to. Into this beautiful, intimate world comes the ultimate test of Joan and Imogen's friendship--a test that summons their unconditional trust in each other.

A brief respite from our chaotic world, Love & Saffron is a gem of a novel, a reminder that food and friendship are the antidote to most any heartache, and that human connection will always be worth creating.

Reviews (1)

Kirkus Review

Two women, one in Los Angeles and the other on an island near Seattle, strike up a correspondence that blossoms into a deep friendship in the early 1960s. When Miss Joan Bergstrom, then 27, sends a packet of saffron she has picked up on her travels to Mrs. Imogen Fortier, the author of a column she enjoys in Northwest Home & Life magazine, a correspondence between the two women begins. Imogen leaps into the friendship with both feet despite their 32-year age difference, as does Joan. What starts out as the occasional chat about food evolves into much more as the women expand their horizons--Joan with a new job as a reporter on the women's pages of the Los Angeles Herald Examiner and an exploration of the wide variety of foods available in Los Angeles, and Imogen with new tastes and recipes that bring Francis, her husband of four decades, out of the shell he's lived in since the Great War. Author Fay has written an all-too-brief novel that explores how the women's friendship evolves and deepens when they open up to each other. In their letters, Joan and Imogen show their true selves, exploring their experiences and their thoughts about love, mental health, sadness, difficult decisions, and unexpected joys. Fay's touch is deft, and the information is received by both women with love and acceptance without becoming cloying to the reader. Written primarily in the form of letters sent between 1962 and 1965, the story also explores how adventures in the culinary world redefine the women's relationships with happiness, food, and new experiences. The story leaves the reader wanting more--more recipes, more letters, more time in the gentle, unfolding friendship of these two women. A glimpse into a friendship that doesn't hesitate to touch on joy, sadness, love, and death. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.