Faith Middleton Show: The Saints And Sinners Of The Food World

Spoon Fed is a memoir.  It has what a memoir needs these days - dramatic tension - in this case, will she quit drinking, stay sober, and find a rich satisfying life?

But a good memoir and this is one of them, also needs to make our worlds feel larger for having read the book.

Spoon Fed is an education about the transformation of food in America in the last 30 years.  If you love to read about food, you'll love this.

But it's also dishy in a Dorthy Parker way.  Severson tells stories about her own shortcomings, first, and then, the pluses and minuses of the people she encounters in the major food world, especially in San Francisco and New York.

The heart of the book is about the complexity  of living day to day, and how the simple, clear-eyed responses of friends and strangers, when we've lost our way, can save us.