Kristin Scott

We often use the words dough and bread as slang for money, and most know the cliché, "bread is life." And yet for many, bread really does serve as a form of currency, while the yeast used to make bread is truly "alive." For Catholics the bread of Holy Communion is the body of Christ, and in Arabic, the word for bread, aysh, also means "life."

In "Going with the Grain: A Wandering Bread Lover Takes a Bite Out of Life," Susan Seligson travels all over the world gathering grains of truth about the historical, spiritual, and cultural significance of bread. As we accompany the author into the crowded, narrow streets of Morocco, rain-soaked meadows of Ireland, the bustle of Indian markets, and winding picturesque streets of Paris, her narration is casual, informative, and entertaining.

Boldly going where few bread-lovers have gone before, Seligson takes us into the hearths of bread ethos, from the Khabbaez (bakeries) of Jordan and the horno ovens in the Pueblo villages of the American Southwest to the schmurah (guarded) matzo bakeries of the Chasidic enclave in Brooklyn, New York and the boulangeries in Paris, France. And while Seligson sifts through her experiences searching for the deeper meaning of bread, her colorful personal reflections are often enlightening and humorous. Though Seligson stands gaping at the "massive panorama of stainless steel" in the Wonder Bread factory, for example, she also recalls that "one of the things we loved about Wonder Bread was the way we could smush it into little hard pellets."

Whether it's a country biscuit soaked in gravy, a crunchy matzo square, or a melt-in-your mouth croissant, this bread maven of an author gives us a taste of many cultures. And though we do get a bit sidetracked in Jordan (to the point of almost forgetting what the book is about), Seligson's adventures are so interesting, and her storytelling so vivid and engaging, that we hardly care that we've momentarily veered off the path. Overall, Seligson rises to the occasion and serves up a fascinating chronicle of this much-revered staple of life.

"Going with the Grain: A Wandering Bread Lover Takes a Bite Out of Life"

By Susan Seligson

Simon & Schuster, $24, 240 pages

(2002-12-12)

Also by Kristin Scott

Story Stew
Dorothy Allison's "Trash" is like an old-fashioned, gritty, down-home Southern meal. The meat of raw experience is the main course, and every morsel is rich with flavor.
(2002-10-23)

The greatest story never told
In a humanizing story of biblical proportions, Shlomo DuNour delivers a strange, critical, yet sympathetic take on the saga of mankind's creation through the eyes of a naïve and inquisitive angel named Adiel.
(2002-09-04)

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