The Milk of Almonds: Italian American Women Writers on Food and Culture

Often sentimentalized as nurturing through food, Italian American women have continually struggled against this stereotype to speak of the realities of their lives. In The Milk of Almonds, more than 50 writers speak in voices that are loud, boisterous, sweet, savvy, and often subversively comical. Drawing on personal and cultural memory rooted in experiences of food, here Italian American women dissolve conventional images, replacing them with a sumptuous, communal feast of poetry, stories, and memoir. Though they begin with food, the writers in this collection quickly carry the reader into unexpected terrain as they bear witness to experiences often considered unspeakable. A deeply satisfying literary banquet, The Milk of Almonds is an unprecedented collection, amply revising all received notions of what it means to be an Italian American woman. Book jacket.