Keeping House: A Novel in Recipes

Clara Sereni

Jul 2011 · State University of New York Press

About this ebook

Part autobiographical novel and part cookbook, Keeping House tells the story of a young Italian woman struggling to find self-definition and self-identity. Born into a prominent Jewish Italian family full of strong personalities and colorful figures, Clara narrates the humorous, dramatic, and often poignant events that inform her life. Intertwining recipes with her narrative, Clara uses food as markers for the cornerstones of her life, allowing her to discover and remember both public and private events—a Yom Kippur dinner, fascism and antifascism, the early years of the young Italian republic, the politics and culture of the Italian left, the openness of the 1960s and '70s, and the retreat into privacy of the 1980s.

About the author

Clara Sereni is an award-winning Italian writer residing in Perugia, Italy. She is the author of several novels and a collection of short stories. Giovanna Miceli Jeffries teaches Italian at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. She is the author of Letteratura e Lavoro nella narrativa di Italo Svevo and editor of Feminine Feminists: Cultural Practices in Italy. Susan Briziarelli is Associate Professor of Italian at the University of San Diego. She is the author of Enrico Annibale Butti: The Case of the Minor Writer.