The March book of the month for The Kitchen Reader is Season to Taste: How I Lost My Sense of Smell and Found My Way. This book was chosen by Katherine Martinelli and was written by Molly Birnbaum.
Do you want to read something that will alter you? Make you more aware? Inspire gratitude?
Do you take your nose for granted? Do you assume, as I have over the years, that your nose will always do the job it was destined to do? It will always be fulfilling its' purpose?
Season to Taste was a great choice for The Kitchen Reader. I began and finished within a couple of days and it has stuck with me. Lingering in my head. Coming to mind every time I walk into the kitchen to start a meal. Every time I reach into my spice cabinet.
Molly Birnbaum wrote from first hand experience. She was in an accident. She recovered slowly but surely with the help of family and friends. Her body healed but her head injury left her without her sense of smell. The kicker? She was due to begin culinary school.
She finds herself unable to function. Depression. Lack of a career. No appetite. She eventually begins the research. She discovers how the sense of smell operates. She interviews doctors. She travels and meets with others who are experiencing her pain. The invisible pain that left her unable to cook, unable to detect spoiled milk, unable to operate in a kitchen.
Parts of the book were a bit detailed and her doctor visits really didn't excite me as a reader but those sections absolutely show how seriously she leapt into the reality of her condition. Learning as much as she could. Forcing her brain to acknowledge her deficiencies.
It was fresh and pleasing to read about a woman who is driven to learn about herself and then share her knowledge. The average person probably is not even aware of the amount of research needed to help people who are suffering with these types of conditions.
A huge thanks to Katherine for choosing such a unique book. And, an even bigger thank you to Molly Birnbaum for taking the time to share her story~for allowing the reader to witness the pain and experience the confusion that accompanies the process of losing and regaining the sense of smell.
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| Molly Birnbaum |
Birnbaum certainly gave me a new appreciation for the uses of the nose! I was surprised to learn about how smell is so interlinked with memory as well as food.
ReplyDeleteI have to imagine that I, too, would become obsessed with learning about my condition if something similar happened to me. Especially if my nose (my FUNCTIONING nose) was so crucial to my life's work. It was a really interesting story...
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