Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at the Table
by Ruth Reichl
Study Questions
- What were your general impressions about this book? How is it different from the other books we've read and discussed together? What book(s) do you think it most resembles?
- Make a list of the recipes in the book, in order, and study it. What can you learn about Ruth Reichl's life from the recipes she includes in her memoir?
- Perhaps Ruth's experiences with purchasing, preparing, and/or eating food might be seen as a kind of journey. What sort of journey might this be? From what to what? What helpers does she encounter along the way? What do they teach her?
- Ruth's relationship with her mother was a troubled one. Describe the difficulties she experienced. How was she affected by her mother's behavior? How well did she cope? Have you ever had a close relationship with someone who behaved as Ruth's mother did?
- Ruth herself seems to lack direction in her life as a young adult. Find the passages in which she describes her uncertainty. How does she find her vocation? Were you ever in a similar situation--uncertain about what your future might hold?
- At an early age, Ruth discovers that "food could be a way of making sense of the world . . . if you watched people as they ate you could find out who they were." Point out your favorite example of this in
the book. Do you have a story to share from your own life that illustrates this idea, or something similar?
- In the "Author's Note" at the beginning of the book, Ruth writes about storytelling. Go back and reread that section. Does this change your feelings about the book? Why or why not?
- If you wrote your own food memoir, what would it look like? What favorite recipes would you include? Why?