Kitchen Privileges by Mary Higgins Clark

Kitchen Privileges
by Mary Higgins Clark

I've always found memoirs by fiction writers fascinating, even when I'm not a fan of their fiction work.  There's something about their powers of description and storytelling that have been honed through fiction writing which make their memoirs particularly engaging. 

Several years ago my sister gave me a copy of Kitchen Privileges by Mary Higgins Clark and I wasn't terribly interested because I didn't care for her mysteries, but I started reading the first few pages and was hooked.

Like most authors, Clark has led an interesting life in her own right.  (It seems most authors have held a variety of jobs in their life and draw on those varying experiences to put life into their writing.) 

Clark grew up during the Great Depression, a time when the neighborhood Good Humor man, felt lucky to lose his thumb and index finger up to the knuckle when the lid of the freezer smashed it because “it was a good accident... The company gave me forty-two dollars, and I was able to buy a winter coat for my wife.  She really needed one.”

Recollections of a huge extended family gathered around the table sharing stories and her Irish ancestry give the atmosphere.  She talks about being in love with her future husband (who lived on the next block) from age sixteen, though they wouldn't date for another five years.

Childhood asthma and frequently missed school taught Clark to be observant when she was home with her mother, hearing the stories as visitors came calling during the day.  A future writer couldn't help but be influenced by that kind of input.  Her father died when she was ten and her memories of him are warm and probably a little larger than life.  Her mother was unable to get a job so they rented rooms in their house.

Her mother was unstinting in her praise of Clark's writing from an early age, making her recite poems to guests and telling them she would be a great writer one day.  She admonishes others to be as encouraging to young people.  “When a child comes to you wanting to share something he or she has written or sketched, be generous with your praise.  If it's a written piece, don't talk about the spelling or the penmanship, look for the creativity and applaud it.  The flame of inspiration needs to be encouraged.  Put a glass around that small candle and protect it from discouragement or ridicule.”

All of this is just the beginning of her story, told in the first twenty pages.  I highly recommend this book for the personal story and the history.  As I looked it over again to write this review, I felt myself drawn in all over again.  It would also make a fine gift for a writer, as it did for me.