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As promised many moons ago, you’re all invited on Friday, July 16 at 7:30 pm CST to journey back to Prythian as we discuss what the Court of Dreams and their compatriots have been up to in February’s release of A Court of Silver Flames (A Court of Thorns and Roses #4)  by Sarah J. Maas.  Spoilers will abound, so if you have not read the series, we highly recommend you binge it (because we have, several times) and SIGN UP HERE for Virtual Book Club!  We’re taking the win of having already read this lengthy novel, but also planning a reread (or another reread for Ashley).

Lisa Donovan and her debut book, Our Lady of Perpetual Hunger first came on my radar back in January as a 2020 favorite of Modern Mrs. Darcy event manager Shannan. Shannan’s description, which you can find in the transcript or podcast episode, is more about how the book made her feel than the content, which might be my favorite way to talk about books!  Before reading this book I knew almost nothing about Lisa Donovan, and not much more about the book.  I knew it was a memoir of a southern, award-winning chef who happens to be female, and that there was reflection about where southern food comes from (spoiler alert: those recipes don’t historically come from men, and many come from Black women who were enslaved or grossly undervalued). 

To me, Our Lady of Perpetual Hunger is best discussed in parts, although the book isn’t divided in this way.  The first part is about Donovan figuring out who she is, what she wants, and how to trust her gut, in spite of others who “know best.”  The second is about her fight to survive and make her dreams a reality.  Next comes learning that even when her dream is realized, other forces may collude to make it miserable and keep her down from the levels they seek to achieve.  Last is how she found a way to have her dreams and do it in a way that feels meaningful and, most importantly, respectful to herself and the life she created for herself and her family.  All of this is described in gorgeous, seemingly unfiltered prose that reminds me of Dani Shapiro, but with a different intensity, not less, just different.

The latter parts of Our Lady of Perpetual Hunger also feel like a love letter to my home.  As Donovan was moving to Nashville, I was leaving for a while, but the way she described the neighborhoods and the community is just like what I remember from then, although it all looks and feels so different now.  Ashley and I had a conversation about which high school she taught at her first year here, and while we have an educated guess, her experiences could have happened at most private, and a decent amount of the public, high schools in and around Nashville.  There is a lot of wealth here, but also a lot of people who work in hospitality (among other industries) and struggle to make ends meet because of the typical pay of their industry.  I don’t have solutions but I do know that while reading this book, I, first, was desperate to go to some of the restaurants discussed, and then wanted to deep dive who the chefs and investors involved are before I select where I might go for my next culinary experience.  As usual, the acknowledgements provide some ideas for starting that research into who could be involved with exceptional restaurants that are respectful of their staff.  

As you can imagine, Donovan’s life wasn’t all roses and sunshine, or perhaps pies and cakes are a better analogy here.  She experienced some pretty tragic things in her life, and not just living on the edge of poverty.  Some readers may want content warnings because those experiences appear on the page, and they’re described with the same raw vulnerability Donovan uses throughout the book (if that’s you, please slide into our DMs).  That rawness makes for a gorgeous read, and feels like an important part of this amazing memoir that looks into the soul of Donovan, southern women, and the restaurant industry.  

I want to end my comments on Our Lady of Perpetual Hunger with my first impression: why is an award-winning chef putting away her apron and pastry tools to become a writer?  Now I get it.  While I want to discover a way to partake of Donovan’s culinary expertise, I also want to consume her words again, and not just a likely reread of this, her first book, but her articles and essays on food, and new, different words she has yet to publish, because her writing and her storytelling are a gift she generously shares with readers, just as I imagine her food is as well.  I give this 4.5 stars, and will round up to 5.  I’ll definitely be looking out for new books from Donovan, as well as any opportunities to experience her love and passion for hospitality that may arise.  

~Nikki

Lisa Marie Donovan broke me. I can’t remember the last time I cried, tears streaming down my face, while reading a book. Additionally, no other book has been such a catharsis that I ugly cried thrice during the day after I had finished it – destroying my mascara and requiring me to wash my dang face. I have been known to describe books and writing as delicious, but Lisa’s descriptions of her emotional and food journeys are gloriously decadent. There are so many reasons why I absolutely adore this book and I will try to discuss those succinctly below, but I need to impart that this book has made such an impression on me that I will be spending real cash dollars on this book for my shelf and to give as gifts to the women in my life whom I love. Don’t be surprised if you receive a copy, possibly signed by the author and definitely purchased from our local indie, Parnassus Books. This is unabashedly a 5 star read for me, a definite re-read in the future, and at this point in the year, a top five of 2021. I wish I would have read it sooner.

What really hit me in the feels repeatedly and without ceasing, was how Lisa (I can’t call her Donovan because she seems so familiar to me, even though she calls herself that in the book repeatedly) kept coming back to how food is an expression of love. Love to herself, love to her family, and love from the women in her family who came before her. When I was a little girl I wanted to be a chef, I wanted to be what Lisa became, but as I changed and grew and came into my own, being a chef was less important to me. I know now that desire of mine, as I have reflected upon that time of my life when that’s what I wanted, it was because I felt so loved in my mother’s kitchen. She loves her family by the way she provides amazing meals that we connect over. I wanted to also express my love of good food and connecting people through food to those I love. Often I still do when I entertain, but it is a much rarer occurrence at this point in my life. (I hate food prep work and washing dishes. The struggle y’all.) Not to be glossed over is Lisa’s family’s immigrant story, and how the women in her family have tried to make life better for future generations, how she has continued that narrative by sharing her story to make the world better for her own daughter, and son, and everyone’s daughters and sons.

Our Lady of Perpetual Hunger is not only a love letter to Nashville, but a love letter to New Orleans, and the entire South. Lisa was raised in a military family, having her early years being spent overseas, then in Georgia and Florida as she came of age in the 1990’s. After finishing her BFA as a new, single mother – where she met her now husband, swoon – she succumbed to pressure by their families to make life work with her son’s father. Not a spoiler, it didn’t work for lots of reasons, and when she returned home and was reintroduced to John Donovan, they were both in a place where a relationship made sense. She moved to Nashville and he came with her, both of them working multiple jobs to make ends meet. They got married in New Orleans, where John’s family hails from, when she was just a few weeks pregnant with their daughter, Maggie Donovan. I found it adorable how not once did Lisa call her ‘Maggie’ in the book, it was always Maggie Donovan, full stop. 

The meat of the book focuses on Lisa’s relationship around food and the restaurant industry. The reason why we even have this amazing memoir to read is because for her whole career she has been writing about the food industry for magazines and contributing recipes to many cookbooks. She came to national attention for her role as head pastry chef at Sean Brock’s HUSK restaurant, but her words are what will keep her in the zeitgeist for many years after the birth of her first book baby is just a memory. Her 2017 essay in Food & Wine entitled Dear Women: Own Your Stories won a James Beard Award. I wish I had been paying attention to what Lisa has done in Nashville before now because she is my people. She’s an advocate and a catalyst for change so that everyone can become the best they can be and find joy in the work of life and the kitchen. I highly, highly recommend you read this book, cry a lot, and go follow Lisa on Instagram. She’ll help satisfy the hunger of your soul.

~Ashley

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