Love & Saffron: A Novel of Friendship, Food, and Love
In 1962, Imogen Fortier and Joan Bergstrom strike up an epistolary friendship over their shared love of food. At first they seem to have little else in common: Imogen is a married 59-year-old living in Washington State, and Joan is a single 27-year-old living in Los Angeles. But both are writers: Joan writes for the food pages of her local newspaper, and Imogen writes a monthly column for her local newspaper.
The letters between the two women are filled with warmth and detailed recipes. They also reveal the political and social climate of the era, mentioning everything from the Cuban Missile Crisis to Helen Gurley Brown’s Sex and the Single Girl. They both grieve when JFK is assassinated. Although the older Imogen is puzzled by the new band called the Beatles, thinking of them as “four British boys with odd haircuts,” she thinks young people need “something that looks to the future.”
Fay creates a pleasant world that at first seemed to this reader a little too conflict-free aside from difficulties finding ingredients for exotic recipes, but as the friendship between Imogen and Joan deepens, it becomes clear that they both experience private pain, making them deeply sympathetic and relatable. Their friendship becomes an anchor in both of their lives, prompting Imogen to write to Joan, “when a new experience comes into my life, it doesn’t feel real anymore until I’ve shared it with you.”
The author’s note explains that this book was meant to be an antidote to the anxious climate created by our current pandemic, and it definitely succeeds. This gentle story about female friendship is sure to be a hit with foodies and fans of early 1960s America.
