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most memorable food scenes from novels i have read this year, a thread:
The Lost Children Archives, Valeria Luiselli: long fries dipped in ketchup and mayo at the Dixie Cafe diner in Arkansas, a practice of which the narrator, incredibly, disapproves
The Mirror and the Light, Hilary Mantel: Cromwell breakfasting after the beheading of Anne Boleyn on 'fine white loaves, wine of head-spinning strength'
Dusty Answer, Rosamond Lehmann: cocoa, buns, cigarettes and oranges consumed in a Cambridge college bedroom by infatuated college girls who also brush each other's long, shimmering hair
The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison: Blue and Cholly eating the heart of a watermelon, rigid with juice, 'the nasty-sweet guts of the earth'
The Lady of the Flowers, Jean Genet: no food, only cocaine injected with a cut-glass syringe shaped like the stopper of a decanter
The Lonely Londoners, Sam Selvon: Galahad and Moses with their bellies full of park-caught pigeon and rice
Hester, by Margaret Oliphant: a simple but melancholy supper of cold meat, salad, a little round loaf, and a pat of butter in a small silver dish... all set out upon a white cloth
The Nickel Boys, Colson Whitehead: the rare bounty of two glasses of lemonade for Elwood and Turner, served on a bronze tray on a 'humid November afternoon'
1984, George Orwell: (a re read) regulation lunch - 'a metal pannikin of pinkish-grey stew, a hunk of bread, a cube of cheese, a mug of milkless Victory Coffee, and one saccharine tablet', served with a mug of Victory Gin
The Topeka School, Ben Lerner: no food, just red plastic cups
Half of a Yellow Sun, Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie: Baby's saving meal of dried egg yolk cooked in red palm oil. also: any and all of Ugwu's peppery jollof rice or special stews with arigbe
Taipei, by Tao Lin: compromise Chinese takeout, 'minnow sized pieces of slippery chicken in a shiny garlic sauce, six fortune cookies' and half an Ambien
