David Leite

I read this book for a new book group I am going to join soon. They read books about food, not necessarily cookbooks. This is their selection for July.

So my first critique here may not be about the book at all, or even fair as regards the book. This book has very little to do with cooking. This book is primarily about living with a bipolar disorder and struggling with being gay and coming out. I did enjoy this book but I kept wondering, since it is a book club pick dealing with food books, where does the food come into play?

I had never heard of David Leite but I read the bio about him and his contributions to food and cooking via articles and the internet. This is the story of his life. How he documents his mental illness is very interetsing. I can't imagine feeling this way all of my life and trying to explain it to people, even psychologists and psychiatrists. He seems to have had a slew of bad therapists, unfortunately. I'm glad he ends up getting the help that he needs.

Yes, a little bit more about food would have been nice but I'm not sure that was his intent with this book. David was saying "Here I am, flaws and all, this is me. I have a story to tell." I appreciated that.

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I enjoyed reading this candid memoir by food writer David Leite. It was an interesting journey that the reader was taken on as he chronicled growing up and into adulthood. I could relate to the fact that as a food writer he is a late bloomer, having previous careers in acting and advertising first that did not work out, mainly due to his struggles with manic depression before it was diagnosed properly and treated. Indeed a love of food he had inherited from his Azorean heritage, he being a first generation American, and it always was there, but not until later was he able to have it as his main purpose in life. It was interesting to read about his struggles with his homosexuality in a time when it was still considered by some a disorder that could be fixed and in Leite's case, he attempted to through the cult of Aesthetic Realism. I felt that once he had accepted it as a part of himself and found Alan, "The One", it enabled him to then deal with the real mental illness of manic depression. I think this is a great read for those who like memoirs (like me) and it can also help those dealing with mental illness.… (more)