Review: From Scratch by Tembi Locke
Three months into living/working/existential-crisising within the confines of an apartment, and I’ve transformed into a Gollum-y husk of a woman. Sure, I’ve made an effort on some level — business casual top paired with sweatpants for Zoom meetings, scrolling Reddit until 2 am (not 3 am), and vacillating between DoorDash, UberEats, and Postmates for some culinary variety. But in an effort to hashtag live my best life, I impulse ordered some books to feel cultured.
Me, by Sir Elton John.
Open Book, by Jessica Simpson.
And in an effort to not feel shamelessly celeb-centric: From Scratch, by Tembi Locke.
I had no expectations going in, which is probably why they were so wonderfully met (and exceeded) when I read From Scratch in one sitting.
We meet Tembi — an actress, Black woman, fluent Italian speaker, and Texan (with a capital T) — navigating courtship, marriage, family, and death across two cultures. In the interest of full disclosure, knowing that she falls in love with Saro, a charismatic Sicilian chef, I was anticipating some heavy Eat, Pray, Love bullshit. But that’s not what I got.
Instead, there’s artful prose about Italian food. I’m talking heaps of food descriptors: homemade pasta, vegetables, and ingredients cultivated from the arid fields of Sicily plus all the wonderful trappings of marrying into a Sicilian family. While food is always in the background, it’s thoughtfully interspersed between major life events. After months of trashy TV and loud internet forums, my heart leaped to read sentences like “I was breathing in new air, air in which he was gone” or “While she cooked, she sighed, leaking out her own pain, resentment, and loss.”
And just like another favorite of mine, When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanthi, Tembi discusses the death of her husband from cancer in a way that captures the familial tension and grieving process behind-the-scenes that a good many other books gloss over. The family members — her own clan from the States and his from Sicily — aren’t the caricatures we see in so many stories that are set abroad, but instead, are portrayed as the multi-dimensional actual people that they are.
If you’re looking for a read to pair with a glass of vino and a plate of pasta con zucchini, I highly recommend this one. It’s deliciously written, weaves an interesting portrait of love, marriage, and family, and is told from a unique viewpoint.
Saluti, Gentle Readers!
From Scratch by Tembi Locke, is available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and local booksellers. Published by Random House, New York 2019. This review contains affiliate links, so if you order your copy from Bookshop.org, we make a little money.
