Blue Plate Special by Kate Christensen

Maybe it is the memoirs that I choose, but there is a theme of broken homes, abusive marriages, and taking some sort of refuge in food that runs through them that is on the one hand heartbreaking, and on the other it makes me wonder both just how pervasive this situation is and how much I might be missing it in my work as a mental health professional. How many abusive and controlling men are there out there? The author has a father who severely beat her mother until she left him--and then after that. Her subsequent husbands made for a cold home and failed marriages that she escaped, almost, but not quite, because while she successfully left home, she did not leave what happened behind. Trauma begets all sorts of things that are not something to be proud of, but at least she did not pass it on to another generation. She will hopefully find peace at some point, but it doesn't happen in this volume, and to my ear, the food is an add on at the end, not something that is deeply tied to the story. It is sad all around.