Comfort Food for Breakups: The Memoir of a Hungry Girl.

Janet Arnett is the former campus manager of adult education at Ontario’s Georgian College. She is the author of Antiques and Collectibles: Starting Small, The Grange at Knock, and 673 Ways to Save Money.

Here’s a stew of memories, simmered in a broth of sadness and loss. Cooking and eating are “a kind of memory machine,” the author says and at the present point in her life (“it hurts to turn 40”), she feels the need to look back, and review the “flavours of love and loss.”

The losses Bociurkiw has experienced include separation from her cultural heritage, the illness and death of relatives, and the ending of numerous love relationships. She turns to food for comfort and sinks into the connections between food, memories, and relationships. Food, she says, both nourishes the present and heals the wounds of the past. Food is what connects the hungers for intimacy and for home, for cultures and families. Memory is cyclical not linear, and separations by time or distance can sometimes be bridged by the aroma and taste of certain foods. Food, in this context, gives structure to chaos and creates a dialogue between the author and others in her life, whether grandparents, parents, brothers, or lovers. Food, she says, can make you feel as if you belong somewhere.

This work is set in a world of Ukrainian heritage and lesbian relationships. The geographic setting is mainly British Columbia and Europe (Ukraine, Italy, France) with shorter ventures into Turkey and Nova Scotia. The style is often sensual, mixing the longing for food as ritual with love. The ethereal vignettes are anchored with 11 recipes, although some have weak method descriptions.

Food connects us to the world, she says, yet hunger doesn’t always have to do with food: “I know the recipes for comfort, for mourning, and for celebration … the sadness … the nearness of death … the deep pleasure of tradition.”

For the author, food can sometimes take the place of language and be a way to communicate the many faces of love and loss.