Treyf

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What to expect

From the former Washington Post columnist and James Beard Award–winning author of Poor Man’s Feast comes a story of seeking truth, acceptance, and self in a world of contradiction.

Treyf: According to Leviticus, unkosher and prohibited, like lobster, shrimp, pork, fish without scales, the mixing of meat and dairy. Also, imperfect, intolerable, offensive, undesirable, unclean, improper, broken, forbidden, illicit.

Fans of Augusten Burroughs and Jo Ann Beard will enjoy this kaleidoscopic, universal memoir in which Elissa Altman explores the tradition, religion, family expectations, and the forbidden that were the fixed points in her Queens, New York, childhood. Every part of Altman’s youth was laced with contradiction and hope, betrayal, and the yearning for acceptance: synagogue on Saturday and Chinese pork ribs on Sunday; bat mitzvahs followed by shrimp-in-lobster-sauce luncheons; her old-country grandparents, whose kindness and love were tied to unspoken rage, and her bell-bottomed neighbors, whose adoring affection hid dark secrets.

While the suburban promise of The Brady Bunch blared on television, Altman searched for peace and meaning in a world teeming with faith, violence, sex, and paradox. Spanning from 1940s wartime Brooklyn to 1970s Queens to present-day rural New England, Treyf captures the collision of youthful cravings and grown-up identities. It is a vivid tale of what it means to come to yourself both in spite and in honor to your past.

Critics Review

  • “Altman’s path to living authentically is hard won, but she demonstrates there’s reward to be found in the fight.”

    Publishers Weekly

  • “Altman’s conflicted feelings about her life, her parents, and, yes, food infuse this delicious memoir.”

    Booklist

  • “Altman not only reveals how she learned to interweave the contradictory threads of her life into a complex whole. She also gives eloquent voice to the universal human desire to belong. A poignant and life-affirming family memoir.”

    Kirkus Reviews

  • “A beautiful, brilliant memoir filled with striking images, unforgettable people, and vivid stories.”

    Kate Christensen, author of Blue Plate Special

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