Dinner with Edward: A Story of an Unexpected Friendship

A wonderful relationship between an man whose wife of sixty two years has died and the author, asked to look in on him by his two daughters. Edward is an amazing man, a man who wholeheartedly loved his wife, loves to cook and entertain, Isabel is in a troubled marriage, a journalist who is working in New York. The menus are wonderful, the descriptions of the food make one hungry. So from dinners and conversation a special friendship is formed. A glorious and sentimental story of how two people a generation apart help each other through troubled times. <br /><br />I fell in love with Edward, it was hard not to, he is such an elegant, intelligent man, a man who only uses the best. We learn of his life with his wife, so beautiful, so sad. We watch how Isabel changes, becoming a fuller person, makes changes in her life, happier. Learn a little history, Roosevelt Island and the mental institution that once inhabited this space and still leaves traces. All in all a wonderful, delightful story.<br /><br />ARC from publisher.<br /><br />

Beautiful and short. A book about love and nourishment. About slowing down and taking it easy. Isabel the journalist.. the newly separated and then divorced... Edward the 93 years old widower who cooks and by himself is a university of life. <br /><br />Over many dinners .. life is discussed and advice dispensed. Love and death... life and work.. memoirs of the past and dreams of the future.. <br /><br />Heart warming and touching. I wish there was some recipes of those wonderful dishes that he prepared for her

Isabel was just helping out a friend who asked her to check in on her father who was recently widowed. Nonagenarian Edward was grieving the loss of his beloved wife, and felt he had no reason to live. Isabel and Edward's first dinner together was the beginning of a five year friendship. Isabel's marriage was crumbling so she needed companionship as much as Edward did. She was also adjusting to life in New York City as an investigative reporter after previous jobs as a foreign correspondent.<br /><br />Edward was a charming Southern gentleman who had come to New York hoping for an acting career, although he ended up working as a welder and a tailor. Edward enjoyed writing poetry, making furniture, and was a gourmet cook. He and Isabel enjoyed his fabulous meals, accompanied by perfectly chilled martinis and wine. Edward had a gift of enjoying life to the fullest--from making new friends to baking perfect apricot souffles. Edward told Isabel that he was grateful that Isabel had come into his life at a critical time. "We gave each other the courage to go on with our lives. We were equally giving and receiving in that period, which was crucial to you and me." <br /><br />"Dinner with Edward" is a small, lovely book about a special relationship. In these days where we often eat on the run, it's also a reminder to take the time to share a wonderful meal with good food and thoughtful conversation.

2.5 stars<br /><br />Isabel, struggling over her crumbling marriage, and Edward, a man in his 90s who is grieving over the recent death of his wife, strike up a friendship over weekly dinners. The meals that are so lavishly described are a springboard for stories from both their lives. Edward's wisdom on love, marriage, and life is sprinkled throughout. Through this unlikely friendship, both begin to heal from their wounds.<br /><br />The problem for me is I felt something was missing. It was sweet but there was no depth, and I didn't become attached to either character, especially Isabel. Although a short novel, I struggled to finish it. For a book that revolves around food so much, recipes would have been nice.<br /><br /> I do not recommend the audiobook. The narrator has an odd cadence to her speech and overacts the part. She reads it with a light chick-lit tone.<br /><br />

3.5 stars Isabel Vincent is in her forties, with a crumbling marriage, newly employed by Th New York Post and has relocated with her family to New York from Toronto after a career spent primarily as a foreign correspondent. Edward, in his nineties and the father of Isabel's concerned friend Valerie, is a new widower, deeply bereft from the recent death of his beloved wife. Edward has lost his zest for life; Isabel is asked by Valerie, who lives in Canada, to check on Edward periodically. <br /><br />Edward cooks - divinely. Old fashioned, perfectly composed dinners reminiscent of Julia Child's French method of creating elegant cuisine are Edward's re-entry to having a passion for life again, and those meals begin by inviting Isabel to dinner weekly. <br /><br />What follows is Isabel Vincent's memoir of those meals, of her friendship with the multi-talented and faceted Edward and the life changes for both. Edward becomes an admirer, a mentor, an advisor, a source of nourishment for Isabel's trampled soul and immature personality along with the food he brings, in the safe haven of his apartment. With Edward, Isabel experiences chivalry, develops a sense of her own femininity and and examines life values from a broader scope. In effect, she grows up. <br /><br />I cringed a couple of times when Isabel vented about "men", and that she didn't want anything to do with them again. I'm not sure if she intended for the reader to feel the nuances of her remark, or was truly unaware of the ageism in it. After a "certain" age, people lose visibility. Losing one's gender is actually disheartening, which the young in this world of politically correct "gender neutral" wouldn't understand. An elderly man continues to be a MAN, perhaps frailer, greyer but still wants to be considered a MAN. Women suffer from the same invisibility, pooled into the greyscale with men. Isabel's remarks pointed out her insular life experience, and how much Edward's insights had jump started Isabel's growth. <br /><br />By end of the book, we see that Isabel has indeed "grown up", moving outside of the self-centred orbit that was hers upon moving to New York. She was a fortunate woman to have met Edward, at such a critical point in her life.

In this heartwarming memoir, a journalist tells how friendship with an elderly gentleman rekindled her appetite for life. New to NYC and with a faltering marriage, Isabel received an unusual request from her friend Valerie: Would she look in on Valerie's father, Edward? In his nineties, he'd recently been widowed and Valerie was worried about him losing the will to live. If he could have a guest to cook for and entertain, it might give him a new sense of purpose. As it turned out, it was a transformative friendship for the author as much as for Edward. Each chapter opens with a mouth-watering menu. Although Edward is now deceased, when we see him for the final time, he is still alive and well. This is a nice way to leave things – rather than with a funeral, which might have altered the overall tone.<br /><br />Non-subscribers can read an excerpt of my review at <a href="https://www.bookbrowse.com/reviews/index.cfm/book_number/3421/dinner-with-edward" rel="nofollow noopener">BookBrowse</a>.

Stunning. Wonderful. Unputdownable. This book is described as "a story of an unexpected friendship ". And it is. But so much more. The tender and enchanting account of a friendship between a very elderly man (early 90's) and a lady (late 30's) played out over dinners and some letters.

DWE chronicles the unlikely relationship between the author and the 90+ year old father of one of her longtime friends. On a superficial level their connection may seem like a friendship, and that's definitely how the author presents it. However I couldn't escape the conclusion that it was only a relationship of mutual need.<br /><br />Both author and subject are looking for something that has eluded each their entire lives. She wants success and he craves fame and adulation. She has authored a few books and works as an investigative reporter for a popular New York tabloid and he's a guy with various talents who never reached the limelight. If she can write a book about their supposed friendship and hit all of the right notes each might finally achieve their goal. Well, she wrote the book but it just isn't any good. The best I can say is that it's mercifully short.<br /><br />The first and biggest problem is that the relationship is just too contrived. Both are so self absorbed they seem incapable of genuinely caring for someone other than themselves. When she wasn't whining about work or her relationship with nameless ex-husband number 2 she was chronicling each menu item prepared by Edward in a gratingly detailed and elitist way. (If she didn't go into this relationship planning to write a book how did she recall in such excruciating detail the first several meals he prepared five years prior?) [Edit 6/28/2020: See comment below from Stephanie about how the author explains her recollection of the meals.]<br /><br />To balance the relationship we get Edward, a guy who set out to be an actor, then a playwright, then a poet. Edward was married to the love of his life for nearly 70 years, raised two successful daughters, essentially lived life as he chose and yet he comes across as a self-pitying snob. He calls everyone in his circle darling and baby and he talks in a vague, flowery style that has all the precision of a horoscope. He's an updated version of Chance the Gardener from Jerzy Kosinski's Being There.<br /><br />At one point (location 1193 of the kindle version) Edward criticizes funerals he attended because family members became too emotional and he felt the deceased weren't being honored properly, so he asked if he could speak at one service and had everyone laughing in a matter of minutes (no ego there). But within a few pages he tearfully recounts visiting his father on his death bed some 55 years earlier. Add hypocrite to his list of shortcomings.<br /><br />This is one of those rare instances when I'd say a schmaltzy relationship movie (Hallmark Classic?) would outshine this book every time.<br /><br />As to great books about good food I'd recommend any one of the dozens of America's Test Kitchen cookbooks. Edward may turn his nose up at recipes but they never disappoint commoners like me.

<i>"But from the beginning of our relationship, I knew instinctively that his culinary tips went for beyond the preparation of food. He was teaching me the art of patience, the luxury of slowing down and taking the time to think though everything I did.”</i><br /><br />What a touching and indeed life-affirming read! Isabel, an investigative journalist, accepts to keep an eye on her best friend’s father, a nonagenarian recently widowed. Edward has a passion for food and invites her to amazing dinners, elaborate meals he puts together with time and effort, that demand to be savoured. In this sanctuary, the two start an unexpected friendship that helps them deal with their situations, one a crumbling marriage, the other the loss of the love of his life.<br /><br />At first, all I could concentrate on were the descriptions of food (luscious) and indeed of New York (fascinating). Soon enough, however, the persona of Edward started to jump out of the pages. Here was a seemingly ordinary man, who had lived a small, hard, honest life, but who was anything but. While hosting dinners for people all around him, developing their taste buds, he was also feeding their souls and reminding them to value the good things in life.<br /><br /><i>“The secret is treating family like guests and guests like family.” </i><br /><br />Isabel turned out to mean quite a bit to me too since we share a similar heritage - my parents emigrated from Portugal but to Belgium, not Canada, and I’ve lived most of my adult life in London. Just the mention of certain dishes and I could see myself back in time, tasting them. That connection of food and memory, as well as music (funnily enough, I LOVE Ella Fitzgerald), is so powerful! This memoir felt like a tender hug, reminding me of what is important in life and that you need to slow down to truly appreciate them :O)

Thank you @pushkin_press for gifting me a copy of Dinner with Edward to review! I read this for #NonFictionNovember (finally got another one under my belt, woo!), a moving memoir of a sweet friendship between Isabel Vincent, a journalist in New York who, at the time, was going through a marriage crisis, and Edward, a ninety-something-year-old who had just lost his wife of 69 years when the two were introduced by his daughter.<br />.<br />Isabel starts going round to Edward’s apartment for delicious meals and life lessons, as the nonagenarian decided 20 years ago that his wife had done more than her fair share of cooking and wanted to cook for them, cultivating a veritable passion for food. I did think their friendship was lovely, although both are not without their flaws (something I feel mean saying because they’re both real people, we’re all flawed, duh). Some of Edward’s views were very much what you’d expect of a ninety-something-year-old, and honestly I thought Isabel was a bit selfish once she pulled through her crisis and found love again.<br />.<br />This might just be my cold, cynical English self showing, but some parts of this book just rang a little false. Do Americans really get together and then proclaim joyfully to one another, ‘This has been the greatest night of my life, I won’t ever forget it’? Because when British people have a dinner party, we say, ‘Right then, I better be off, thanks’. I’m not saying one is better than the other! I’m just saying it felt a bit sentimental for my own tastes.<br />.<br />But the meals - omg. Do not read this book on an empty stomach! I wish there had been a recipe book attached to it, Edward can COOK. The dinner parties he hosted sounded fantastic, full of conversation and, more importantly, sumptuous food.<br />.<br />Overall, a sweet read that verged on sickly at times, but not bad!