The Book of Difficult Fruit

March 1, 2021

Lebo (Pie School; A Commonplace Book of Pie) begins her latest book by perfectly capturing the difference between reading and executing recipes, which "blend the precision of an instruction manual with the faith of a spell." As a poet, essayist, and baker, the author crosses genres in this essay collection. Lebo's meditations on "difficult fruits" and difficult feelings give readers an opportunity to explore new culinary creations and reflect on how we create our lives through our choices and relationships. Chapters progress alphabetically, investigating familiar fruits such as blackberries and rhubarb, and (possibly) introducing readers to new tastes like durian and medlar. Many of the essays are accompanied by a recipe or two, though this is not a cookbook; rather, Lebo effectively uses fruit as a starting point for exploring raw feelings and offering wry observations about her life, friends, and family. Perhaps the most moving chapters are where Lebo turns inward, focusing on her hopes and dreams and how reflecting on the tastes and textures of various fruits has inspired her to write. VERDICT A genre-blending work that will intrigue readers of literary nonfiction, personal essays, or food history.--Meagan Storey, Virginia Beach

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March 15, 2021
Essayist, poet, and cookbook author Lebo (Pie School, 2014) undertakes an intriguing creative exercise in this wonder-filled book. For each letter of the alphabet, she introduces a ""difficult"" fruit: ""not the smooth-skinned, bright-hued, waxed and edible ovary of the grocery store."" No, these fruits are inedible or even poisonous, hard to grow or hard to get rid of, unappealing in look or taste. For instance, medlars must be picked and left to rot in a dark place before they can be eaten; osage oranges are best used as a centerpiece or spider repellent; and ""gooseberries are sour like you arrived before they were ready for company."" While Lebo weaves in memoiristic notes, the fruits and their histories and uses take center stage, and each entry ends with a couple of narrative recipes for items both edible and not: Durian ice cream and lip balm, kiwifruit as a meat tenderizer, vanilla-scented lotion, Japanese pickled ume plums that take five years to make. Lovers of food and nature writing will appreciate Lebo's rangy, researched ode to wildness.

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Starred review from March 1, 2021
A cookbook writer and poet offers a set of personal essays and recipes centered on fruits that present unique challenges and rewards to cooks, bakers, and food lovers. Lebo, currently an apprenticed cheesemaker in Spokane, Washington, presents an A-to-Z compendium of her favorite "difficult" fruits. Some, like blackberries, cherries, pomegranates, and vanilla, are familiar. Others, like durian, medlar, and yuzu, are more exotic and harder to find in mainstream grocery stores. What all these fruits have in common is some element that makes them problematic. Blackberries, a central Asian import, have a "growth habit [that is] invasive." Cherry pits contain amygdalin, which can be used to make almond extract; in the presence of stomach acid, that same substance can create a toxin called hydrogen cyanide. The Southeast Asian durian is "sensationally stinky," and yuzu trees take a decade to produce small harvests on thorny branches. None of these difficulties prevent the author from offering outstanding recipes for traditional fruity treats such as jams, jellies, pies, syrups, and smoothies. She also discusses such delightfully unexpected home and self-care items as paper and cloth dye, lip balm, skin care masks, and even hiker's toilet paper (thimbleberry leaves). What makes Lebo's collection so distinctive is the way she interweaves stories about her own life into her celebrations of the fruits. Blackberries, for example, are indelibly linked to smells, tastes, and memories of Lebo's childhood: "To breathe deep was to be pierced by that scent." Cherries, especially the maraschino variety, recall an aunt who died of cancer "when she was thirty-four and I was eight"; Lebo believed that her aunt had "caught her disease" from eating processed food. Eloquent, well-researched, and thoughtfully conceived and organized, this genre-defying book will appeal to foodies as well as those who appreciate both fine writing and the pleasures of domestic arts and crafts. A one-of-a-kind reading experience.

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