Review of One Knife, One Fork, One Spoon

[Catherine Sweet]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "One Knife, One Fork, One Spoon" by Patty Friedmann.]

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5 out of 5 stars

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One Knife, One Fork, One Spoon by Patty Friedmann is a novel set in New Orleans. Friedmann has written many literary novels, including the prize-winning Secondhand Smoke and the Amazon e-bestseller Too Jewish.

Renna Newlin, the narrator, lives in a big house and is married with four children. Renna stays awake most of the night and sleeps most of the day. She's swinging on her porch at 4 am when she gets talking to a man walking by and hires him to paint her house. Renna is particularly close to her son Frankie, who develops some mental health problems. She builds a relationship with Frankie's friend, 17-year-old Mason. Renna is living on the edge, her life is chaotic, and there is a sense that things are about to go wrong.

Renna is an unusual but believable character. She makes some dubious decisions without questioning the morals of what she's doing. Nevertheless, the reader is swept along by her narrative and feels invested in the character. Some of her pronouncements are shocking, such as when she sandpapers old paint that might have lead in it and says, "Lead could kill a cat, but an adult human would sustain nothing more than brain damage, and I'd always had a secret desire to sustain brain damage."

It is evident from the writing style that Friedmann is an accomplished writer. I found her writing lively and pacy, and I was engrossed in the story. An example of her writing is her description of Thomas. She writes, "Thomas had had many lives, a chronology as continuous as a spiderweb—a thread of effort here, a chasm of trouble there." Friedmann's descriptive writing seems effortless. There is humour, often dark, throughout the book. In particular, I found Renna and Thomas's relationship funny, and I enjoyed reading the repartee between them.

I was disconcerted at the way black and white people were regarded as so separate from each other.
When Renna's at the police station, she thinks, "But I passed for a fastidious white woman who had a black woman stand in my kitchen over an ironing board every Friday while I came in and fretted about creases in the sleeves." Renna is mocking this situation, but there still seems to be a marked separation between black and white people in the story. It didn't come across as racist, but instances like this jumped out at me. In the end, I saw it as one story's portrayal of the culture in New Orleans.

I admired Friedmann's writing and found it fluent and descriptive. Despite Renna's flaws, I still found her to be believable, and I rooted for her throughout. The storyline and characters all brought quality to the book. For these reasons and the flawless editing, I award this book 5 out of 5 stars.

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One Knife, One Fork, One Spoon
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[Gerry Steen]

I gather from your review that a reader will get a glimpse at life in New Orleans through the narration of Renna Newlin. It comes across that Patty Friedmann is a gifted writer. I am intrigued. I will add this one to my book shelves.

[David Alabi]

Renna sounds like the kind of character who keeps you hooked even when you’re shaking your head at her choices. I like that the story mixes dark humor with sharp, vivid writing—it feels like one of those books you don’t just read, you experience. The New Orleans setting seems to give it an extra layer of texture too.