Writing the Wolf Away

Abstract

This essay explores themes of food writing and food memory—conveyors and components of what Annie Hauck-Lawson terms “food voice”—against the backdrop of war, in particular World War II. It focuses on three surprisingly interconnected works: M.F.K. Fisher's How to Cook a Wolf; the autobiographical memoir Nobody Knows the Truffles I've Seen by George Lang; and In Memory's Kitchen, the harrowing, defiant collection of recipes compiled by women in Theresienstadt. Linking all three books are themes of shortage and plenty, survival and celebration, food and food writing as humanizing forces, sources of comfort, and even acts of resistance.