Blog Tour: From the Kitchen of Half Truth by Maria Goodin

I am excited to be part of Sourcebook’s Blog Tour for From The Kitchen of Half Truth by Maria Goodin today and share with you not only my thoughts about this engaging story but also a short Q&A with the author.

Title: From the Kitchen of Half Truth

Author: Maria Goodin

Published: Sourcebooks April 2013

My Thoughts:

From the Kitchen of Half Truth (published as Nutmeg in the UK, and in Australia as The Storyteller’s Daughter) by debut author Maria Goodin is a a poignant story of a relationship between a mother who has taken refuge in fantasy and a daughter who wants only the facts.

Meg’s mother has told her daughter whimsical stories of her birth and early childhood, stories Meg had no reason to doubt since she has no memory of anything that happened before her fifth birthday. But at eight years old Meg May’s belief in her eccentric mother’s tales of runaway runner beans, neighing horseradish and nipping crab cakes was shattered by the taunts of her peers. Now twenty-one, with her mother, Valerie, dying from a terminal illness, Meg has one last summer to discover the truth about her past.

From the Kitchen of Half Truth can not really be labeled as magical realism but it has a sense of whimsy that creates that impression. The imaginative tales stemming from Valerie’s obsession with food and cooking are absolutely charming, from the mint slice that bestows super speed to the hotdogs that bark and the toad in the hole that refuses to stay put. Apparently initially developed from an award winning short story, there are some flaws to be found, with holes in the plot, and sometimes weak characterisation yet the writing has a delightful rhythm and lovely imagery.

Meg’s rejection of her mother’s make believe world has driven her to excel in science, finding comfort in logic and order. In returning home to care for her sick mother Meg is forced to confront her mother’s delusions in her quest for the truth of her early childhood. Humorless and patronising, Meg is not immediately likeable, though she is sympathetic as it’s easy to understand her frustration with her mother’s evasion of the truth.

Valerie’s eccentric behaviour is both endearing and quite maddening. She is an attentive, loving and supportive mother but her denial of reality is quite absurd. It is obvious however that beneath the fantastical stories Meg’s mother has concocted lies a dark secret, and in fact we eventually learn she is hiding some horrifying truths. Truths that Meg finds that she regrets insisting on knowing when they reveal painful memories.

From the Kitchen of Half Truth is an enchanting tale of love, loss, and the conflict between what the head knows and what the heart wants. It is quirky and unusual but altogether I thought it moving, tender and funny.

A quick Q&A Maria Goodin

Q: From the Kitchen of Half Truth was adapted from a short story (that won the 2007 Derby Short Story Competition), did you think as you were writing the story that it had the potential to become a novel?

It didn’t even cross my mind. I had just started dabbling in short story writing, and my only thought was that I wanted to write something that I could enter into a competition to see how it got on. I was really just testing the waters at the time to see if I had what it took to make some success of writing, even if only on a small scale. It was winning the competition that gave me the idea to turn the story into a novel.

Q: What do you think about the varying titles of the novel – in the UK it is titled Nutmeg, in Australia as The Storyteller’s Daughter and in the US as The Kitchen of Half Truth?

It took me some time to get used to the new titles. It’s strange to have your work renamed. I am happy enough with the Australian title, although it focuses on the aspect of storytelling over food, whereas the UK title focused on the food theme alone. The US title manages to combine both and is my favourite. I have never been to the US or Australia, so I think it would be rather narrow-minded of me to assume I know better than the publishers what would appeal to their audience. Unless I strongly objected, I was happy to go with their suggestions. My aim is for people to pick up the book and read it; I’m not precious about the title.

Q: What has surprised you most about the reactions to the story?

The number of times the novel has been called ‘quirky’ has really surprised me. Some of the publishers in the UK said lovely things about the book but felt it was too ‘quirky’ to market. I never set out to write anything particularly unusual – to me the story seemed quite ‘normal’, so maybe that says something about my mind! Perhaps some publishers were concerned that readers might pick the book up, scan the first few lines and decide it was some kind of fantasy book. It’s easy to see how people might start reading the story and think it’s going to be a fairy-tale, but it doesn’t take long to realise something much deeper is going on in the novel, and that underneath the humour and the bizarre stories lies a story about confusion, hurt and self-protection. Maybe there is an assumption that readers like to know exactly what they are getting when they pick up a book, and maybe the way my novel swings from humour to pain makes it hard to pigeonhole. However, a lot of readers have said they really like the fact that the book is a little bit different, so I think being ‘quirky’ has turned out to be a good thing.

Q: Are you working on a second novel?

I am thinking through a few ideas. Life has been rather hectic since having my first novel published, but I am planning on starting to write the next one later this year. For updates, feel free to take a look at my blog on Goodreads.com or see my website, www.mariagoodin.co.uk, which will be live by April.