![]() ![]() Food is one way she traces this theme to the last pages of the book. In Smith’s novel, Rembrandt scholar Howard Belsey discovers late in his life (he is nearly sixty) that it is not the examined life after all that is most worthwhile, but the shared life. This may be why though Zadie Smith’s On Beauty captured my attention on many levels, I was most intrigued by how she uses food as a metaphor for life. ![]() It has taken much of my life-and still sometimes I need reminding-to reconcile my own relationship to food. ![]() Obesity is my family’s disease and they are obsessed with food. What’s the newest diet fad? Who’s tried it and failed? Who succeeded? And while no one has dared to comment when in the course of my tumultuous life I have added pounds to my frame, the shedding of pounds never fails to gain attention and approval. Yet, amidst all this eating what is often very good food, there is the inevitable buzz of food talk. Food laid out on countertops and banquet tables for people to come and go and serve themselves. Every family gathering I’ve ever attended has had food at its center. In my own life, I’ve had a love/hate relationship with food. Of course our relationship to food is complex. It’s necessary for survival, and a source of personal pleasure and communion. ![]()
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