About book La Cucina Degli Ingredienti Magici (2011)
The Kitchen daughter, by Jael McHenry, is an interesting book about a 26 year old girl named Ginny who has Asperger's Syndrome. Reading a story from the point of view of someone with this disability makes for an intriguing story, and much can be learned about what it is like to live with these conditions by reading this book. With that said, I did not find this story to be particularly enjoyable. McHenry's writing style makes it difficult to relate to any of the characters, and in a lot of cases I only ended up getting frustrated by the characters' actions. I was also confused about why the author decided to include ghosts in this book. The rest of the story is so realistic that anytime Ginny talked to a ghost I could not take it seriously because the whole thing was so ridiculous. In general, I feel like McHenry tried to do too many things at once with this story, and it all turned out in one jumbled mess.Throughout the story, Ginny experiences many things, and it was a rewarding experience to watch her mature as she adjusted to the changes in her life. In the beginning of the story, her whole life is held back because of her inability to relate with society and the people around her. This issue takes control of her life, and has a negative effect on her relationships with the people she is close to. As the story continues, she begins to realize that something is not quite right about her, and her doubts are confirmed after she learns she has Asperger's Syndrome. However, instead of letting this dig her into an even deeper whole, she embraces her situation and makes the decision to turn her life around and cope with her disability in an effort to fix her relationships, especially with her sister, Amanda. toward the end of the book, she experiences intense sadness when her friend dies. This is what finally drives her to turn her life around, and in the end she reunites with her sister. Watching Ginny grow as a human being and take an active approach to her life was actually a very rewarding experience, and in my mind it almost made this book worth reading.Without a doubt, the central conflict in this book is man vs. self. In order to right the wrongs in her life, Ginny must first accept who she is and realize that no matter what society may make her believe, she is in fact "normal." Once she recognizes this, she is able to move forward in her life and fix her relationship with her sister. This fits into the central theme that by staying true to yourself and believing in what you think is right you will find happiness. The author uses many motifs to help convey this theme as well, such as anger, fear, trust, and many others. In this way, I think that a lot can be learned from this book even if one does not particularly enjoy the story.McHenry's writing style is very prominent when she writes, "Mix dough. Cut noodles. Poach chicken. I try not to think of Dad, and put my mind on the little girl whose family we're helping. She's a sick little girl, and I hope what we're doing is enough to help her be just a little girl again." This best captures the style of this book because it uses very simple language to convey a deep and heartfelt message. In general, the characters in this story are very sympathetic, and even when they disagree with each other, they still manage to show that they really care about each other. McHenry shows this through very simple and succinct passages that have the effect of being short but sweet.Overall, although this book had some redeeming qualities, I just did not enjoy it very much. I probably would not recommend this book to others unless they had already shown an interest in reading it. Many parts of this book are centered around cooking, so anybody who likes to cook might enjoy it. Of course anybody who either has Asperger's syndrome themselves, or knows someone with Asperger's Syndrome would probably enjoy this book as well because it would be so relatable to their lives. Basically, unless the setting of this book is directly applicable to your life, I would probably not recommend it. It was by no means a bad book, I just think that it could have been written in a much more compelling fashion. I enjoyed this book quite a bit. It was a different story line than I've ever read before, and I liked that it was all from Ginny's point of view. She made me chuckle at times, but at times also made me sad. I felt bad about some of the things she went through and how her sister talked to her at times.The book was unpredictable to me -- in a good way. I wasn't sure what was going to happen or how it would end. I was drawn in by the kitchen/cooking theme...I'm normally a fan of those type of books. I'm glad I read it!
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Aspergers and coping skills. An informative read.
—rachelrox109
