OUR LADY OF PERPETUAL HUNGER

Lisa Donovan narrates her memoir with a firm hold on its meaning and implications. Other than an emotional moment in the acknowledgments, she reads in a pleasing storytelling voice that reveals the twists, turns, and switchbacks of her life as a pastry chef, wife, and mother. This audiobook owes more to the late Anthony Bourdain than to a chef/author like Boston's Barbara Lynch in its revelations of the realities women encounter in restaurant work. Despite great success as a baker, she is underpaid, and she airs real grievances about the commodification of the business. Her story is also personal. To understand herself, she looks back at her grandmother's cooking and life. Donovan writes well. Her prose often shimmers with sensory images and gustatory delights. A.D.M. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine [Published: AUGUST 2020]