Memoir is haunting tribute to bipolar mother
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By Kerry Fried
Newsday
(MCT)
—"Bittersweet: Lessons From My Mother's Kitchen," by Matt McAllester; The Dial Press (214 pages, $25)
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For many years, grand-scale battle was journalist Matt McAllester's metier. Familial conflict was another matter. As he reveals in his painfully evocative memoir, "Bittersweet," his perfect childhood in England and Scotland came to a puzzling end when he was 10: His mother's high spirits turned into hysteria, her enthusiasm into inconsistency and rage. Her son, in particular, couldn't cope with her.
Only in her last years did the doctors get it right: Elizabeth McAllester was bipolar. And only then did she regain her self and re-establish her relationship with Matt — which made her death at 62 even more of a blow.
While others imagined her finally at peace, McAllester (a former Newsday staffer) needed to bring her back. She had once been a brilliant cook, so he would find her in the kitchen. And soon this quest merged with one to nourish his new family: his wife was pregnant.
If this sounds touchy-feely, "Bittersweet" is not. It's laced with humor (McAllester is initially a tin-pot dictator at the stove) and is a glorious guide to London and rural Scotland, past and present.
Above all, though, it is a haunting tribute to someone who should have been allowed her aspirations. Elizabeth, so exquisite and vibrant in the family photos scattered throughout the book, is never more so than in the last image. Framed by two giant, sober columns, she seems to jump for utter joy.
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(c) 2009, Newsday.
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