Not Now But Now

I've always had a fondness for this weird little book, the one and only novel of the late great food writer MFK Fisher. It's a picaresque tale of an proud and avowed egotist who inexplicably travels in time, living her life to the absolute fullest in the 1930's, 1840's, 1920's and 1880's (in that order), seducing the hell out of everyone with her gorgeous perfection and impeccable style, and causing mayhem through the mere force of her sexy superiority. Having read Fisher's classic food musings, which can be a bit hard to swallow at times (ha) I wonder if the awe-inspiring "Jennie" is modeled after her own wonderful self. She certainly had an amazing life, and she was beautiful. "Jennie", too, is thin as a rail but eats like a queen... The book has some pretty arch observances, especially on the subject of women's sensuality and aging, homosexuality and the like. It's quite modern. I adore post-War American fiction like this because of the frank and utter lack of political correctness...It's a delight to read and it's a shame that it's been pretty much forgotten. It's a thousand and one times better than any of the phony-foodie-chic-lit being written nowadays (not that I've actually read any).

This novel is quite strange and lovely. It's made up of four different stories in four different times, but all featuring the same character: the beautiful and ruthless Jennie. She flees from one disaster of her own making to another, never admitting that she is the cause of her own troubles. But even though her bad qualities are readily apparent, Jennie has a way of enchanting the reader and the other characters. Fisher's prose is very clean and precise. Even though I'm not big on food writing, I plan to read some of her nonfiction just to enjoy her writing style some more.