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Those Who Eat at My Table (New Orphic $18)
Ernest Hekkanen's 11th self-published title and 13th book, Those Who Eat at My Table (New Orphic $18), explores food as a focus for revealing human behaviour. The epigram in the frontespiece is from Chogyam Trungpa's The Myth of Freedom: "Food, of course, symbolizes anything you may want -- friendship, wealth, clothes, sex, power, whatever. Anything that appears in your life you regard as something to consume."
With titles such as Ice Reports, Taedium Vitae, Miasma, The Priest Fainted and Flesh and Spirit: The Rasputin Meditations, Hekkanen's stories are intentionally distressing. Perversely grim or humourous, Liver and Liberace tells of a boy growing up in dysfunctional family, under the shadow of Arnold Lahti, a father whose enormous appetite is the result of life's hardships. When the boy gags on the liver and throws up on the kitchen table, his father is outraged. "It's good, wholesome food. Get him another plate, Angela, and serve him up some more liver." As the boy chews methodically on his rancid food, watching Liberace give a piano concert on television, liver and Liberace become inextricably wedded. "I referred to him as Liverachi until I was well into my twenties."
The Hungry Ghost Upon his Sleigh features another father, Glen Maallinen, whose insatiable hunger is the result of a bleak childhood. Raised in an arid coal-mining town of south-west Wyoming during the Depression, the father eats methodically, completely engrossed in the activity. "Once the bone had been relieved of its flesh, he would crack it open and suck on the marrow, his lips, cheeks and fingers delightfully greasy." Glen recounts stories of the Depression, shaming his children into appreciating their easy life with pot-roast every Sunday and bacon every morning. "Once I got a job branding cattle," he recalls. "My job was to remove their testicles, and to sew them up again. But their balls didn't go to waste, no siree. We popped them into a pan on the fire and ate them straight away. We called them prairie oysters."
The Noodle House introduces us to Ernest, a young man who reflects on his past. While Ernest and his friends wait to order in a Kitsilano restaurant, he recalls the maggot-ridden liver his mother used to cook. But instead of avoiding any foods that made him gag as a boy, Ernest orders a bowl of tripe (intestines) and noodle soup. "He chewed it for a long time, unable to mash it into pulp with his teeth. When he swallowed, a gag reflex brought it back up into his mouth." Margrith offers to share her curried seafood with Ernest, but he declines. "No, I bought it and I'm going to eat it." -- by Jeremy Twigg
With titles such as Ice Reports, Taedium Vitae, Miasma, The Priest Fainted and Flesh and Spirit: The Rasputin Meditations, Hekkanen's stories are intentionally distressing. Perversely grim or humourous, Liver and Liberace tells of a boy growing up in dysfunctional family, under the shadow of Arnold Lahti, a father whose enormous appetite is the result of life's hardships. When the boy gags on the liver and throws up on the kitchen table, his father is outraged. "It's good, wholesome food. Get him another plate, Angela, and serve him up some more liver." As the boy chews methodically on his rancid food, watching Liberace give a piano concert on television, liver and Liberace become inextricably wedded. "I referred to him as Liverachi until I was well into my twenties."
The Hungry Ghost Upon his Sleigh features another father, Glen Maallinen, whose insatiable hunger is the result of a bleak childhood. Raised in an arid coal-mining town of south-west Wyoming during the Depression, the father eats methodically, completely engrossed in the activity. "Once the bone had been relieved of its flesh, he would crack it open and suck on the marrow, his lips, cheeks and fingers delightfully greasy." Glen recounts stories of the Depression, shaming his children into appreciating their easy life with pot-roast every Sunday and bacon every morning. "Once I got a job branding cattle," he recalls. "My job was to remove their testicles, and to sew them up again. But their balls didn't go to waste, no siree. We popped them into a pan on the fire and ate them straight away. We called them prairie oysters."
The Noodle House introduces us to Ernest, a young man who reflects on his past. While Ernest and his friends wait to order in a Kitsilano restaurant, he recalls the maggot-ridden liver his mother used to cook. But instead of avoiding any foods that made him gag as a boy, Ernest orders a bowl of tripe (intestines) and noodle soup. "He chewed it for a long time, unable to mash it into pulp with his teeth. When he swallowed, a gag reflex brought it back up into his mouth." Margrith offers to share her curried seafood with Ernest, but he declines. "No, I bought it and I'm going to eat it." -- by Jeremy Twigg
Submitted on September 12, 2003 in By David.
