Betty Fussell refers to her 13th book, How to Cook a Coyote: The Joy of Old Age, as a "coming-of-death story." The Shakespeare scholar, food historian, and memoirist was born in 1927. Though "Tick tock" is a refrain as she senses time running out, her sardonic autobiographical essays burst with memories of food, friendship, sexual passion, and globe-trotting adventures.
Fussell (My Kitchen Wars) is mostly blind and since 2012 has lived in a Montecito, Calif., retirement home, Casa Dorinda--coincidentally, the alma mater of Julia Child, whose mantle she took up by reinstituting a "Breakfast Club" of five elderly intellectuals. Each 7:30 a.m. breakfast is sacred when shared with friends, whose sometimes absurd dialogue she re-creates for readers' delight.
The book's 40 miniature essays are self-deprecating and often employ a playful, inviting direct address to the reader. Fussell gives a rundown of her failing bodily systems and remarks on ironies, yet never gives way to self-pity. The coyote of the title is both literal and metaphorical here: he's the proverbial trickster, and a symbol of death in general. But the coyote is also a real animal, one she tried shooting with her son in Montana--only to wind up in an emergency room on Thanksgiving when she tore a ligament in her ankle.
While she awaits a final encounter with that wily coyote, Fussell has vibrant memories to sustain her. Many of the pieces are elegies for departed friends and family members, reminiscences of past love affairs, and accounts of memorial services. These tongue-in-cheek essays remembering sensual joys are perfect for fans of Diana Athill, Ruth Reichl, and Abigail Thomas. --Rebecca Foster, freelance reviewer, proofreader, and blogger at Bookish Beck