A review by hegemant
From Scratch: A Memoir of Love, Sicily, and Finding Home by Tembi Locke

2.0

What I thought this book was going to be about and what it actually was about were two entirely different things. I was expecting more of a culinary, upbeat, overcoming loss memoir. What it read as was a grieving, never ending, jilted story of a wife losing her husband (which I knew was a core part of the synopsis). I felt everything else was an afterthought. There were parts I couldn't wait to be over because she went on and on and on in a way that I couldn't empathize or connect with. Her writing style came across as her trying way too hard to write lyrically, and it didn't feel right to me. Personal preference perhaps. The time hops didn't make sense to me either. I would have much preferred a chronologically written memoir so I could invest in the family and their relationships. Instead I never connected and honestly couldn't wait for it to be over.