Coastal memoir a worthwhile main course

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 06/01/2023 (717 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

For some people, food is just something to fill the stomach and provide nutrients; for others, food has a greater significance, as it can bring people together. For Margot Fedoruk, making food has been a way of showing love to the members of her family, just as her own parents and grandparents showed love through the meals that they prepared.

Fedoruk is a writer, book reviewer and entrepreneur with a background in the arts and creative writing. Her writing has been published in the Globe and Mail, Quill & Quire, BC Book World and elsewhere, and she has received the Barry Broadfoot Award for creative nonfiction and journalism, as well as a Meadowlarks Award for fiction.

Cooking Tips for Desperate Fishwives: An Island Memoir tells the story of Fedoruk’s meeting and relationship with Rick, a sea urchin diver working off the coast of British Columbia. The nature of his job meant that he could be gone for weeks or months at a time, leaving the author to raise their two daughters mainly alone.

The story begins with an account of Fedoruk’s childhood and youth, growing up in Winnipeg in a dysfunctional family with a mother who went through a series of partners as her daughters were growing up. Meanwhile, the author’s grandparents taught her the power of food to bring people together and to make special connections between them.

As she grew up and established her own household, Fedoruk experimented with her own ways of bringing her family together through food. Several of the recipes she developed over the years are included in the book. While her stinging nettle pesto might be somewhat beyond the skills and interests of many readers, the instructions for curried chickpeas with rice or the clam chowder recipes could be well within the abilities of even the least adventurous cook.

The author’s struggle to make a living is a theme running throughout the book. Money was tight for the family, and Fedoruk describes visiting thrift stores, juggling multiple jobs and beginning a soap-making business to stay ahead of expenses, while also dealing with the difficulties of loneliness and relationships that could sometimes be strained.

As one of the “desperate fishwives” that she refers to in the title of the book, Fedoruk can identify with the people who are left behind to carry on with their lives when the fishing boats leave. After a relatively short stay in Calgary, where the family attempted to start a new life, the return to B.C. was natural; the people living on the coast knew about fishing and about the many dangers in this job, providing a sense of solidarity with Fedoruk.

Cooking Tips for Desperate Fishwives is a compelling, well-written account of the author’s experiences in dealing with the struggles of life. Although readers may not have had the same types of struggles, they can still identify with many aspects of the book. With recipes, a family story and an account of the effort needed to earn a living, this book has something to interest everyone.

Susan Huebert is a Winnipeg writer, editor, and pet sitter.