Review of LOVE, LOSS, AND WHAT WE ATE
Padma Lakshmi’s memoir
I’ve been on a bit of a streak of celebrity memoirs and after coming off of a rare “did not finish” of Selma Blair’s new memoir (at least I don’t at all recommend the audio!), I was eager to find something good one to dive into on my walks.
Somehow, I happened upon Padma Lakshmi’s memoir: Love, Loss, and What We Ate. I knew of Padma, as most probably do, from her hosting role on the hit show, Top Chef. But other than her day job, I didn’t know much about her, her life, or her story.
Growing up with a single mother flying regularly between her home in India and her new life in New York, Padma was constantly navigating between cultures. What she liked about New York, as compared to California where she moved later in her childhood, was the diversity and bustle of New York – it reminded her of home, in India.
Padma grew up in a working-class home with a close bond to her mother and her family in India, where she spent a lot of her time growing up. I loved hearing about her life in India, mostly because the way of living seems to contrast so starkly with the ways in which is typical to grow up in the US. Households in India are nearly devoid of personal space. The centrality of cooking is novel to me. And the strong familial bonds are some to envy.
After her childhood, Padma had quite a career in Europe before landing her Top Chef gig in the US. She spent years modeling and hosting live shows in Italy, for example, catching breaks and enjoying a leisurely lifestyle in the company of intellectual and generous men.
Her story as she tells it is intimately entwined with her romantic relationships. From her early European boyfriends, to her marriage in her 30s that ended in divorce, to the subsequent drama between her two lovers that gave rise to her daughter in 2010 – a tense situation indeed.
What struck me about Padma was her feminine self, at least that what came away to me from reading her story. Something about her experiences, relationships, and perspective felt authentically feminine in a way that I haven’t seen in other women’s memoirs that I’ve read.
I was actually a bit nervous to read the book after peaking at the reviews before downloading (which I try not to do) that chastised her for being a selfish, narcissist in her story. Maybe what I see as authentic femininity, others see as narcissism. Not sure, but I loved this book. It also helped that her audio performance was fantastic. If you’ve watched any of her material, you know she has an amazing voice, which reminded me of the experience of Michele Obama’s silky voice in her memoir.
Overall, this is a great celebrity memoir, should you be into this sort of thing.
Published: March 2016
Format: Audio
If you think this sounds interesting, bookmark these other great reads:
My Remarkable Journey: A Memoir by Katherine Johnson with Joylette Hylick and Katherine Moore (2021)
Becoming by Michele Obama (2020)
Not Quite Not White: Losing and Finding Race in America by Sharmila San (2018)
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