Seven years ago, Natalie left her home in San Francisco's Chinatown after she and her mother disagreed about Natalie's choice to become a chef. She wasn't willing to give up her dream and her mother forbade her, so Natalie left and hasn't spoken to her mother since that day. While Natalie hasn't quite succeeded, she has had the chance to cook in many different parts of the world and realize how important cooking really is to her.
"The best cooks doubled as magicians, uplifting moods and conjuring memories through the medium of food."
She is summoned home when her mother dies suddenly. Although she had emotional problems and was agoraphobic, her death came as a surprise to those friends who cared for her. Natalie is devastated that she never had the chance to make amends and let her mother know how much she loved her despite their disagreement.
She is also surprised at how much her neighborhood has declined—all of the businesses that used to flourish are now in decline and disrepair, and a overly zealous real estate agent is pressuring the tenants to sell so the neighborhood could be gentrified and converted into something new.
Natalie's biggest surprise, however, is that she has inherited her grandmother's small restaurant, which occupied the ground floor of the building she and her mother lived in. Natalie's mother refused to follow in her grandmother's footsteps, but in her will she decided to encourage Natalie's dreams after all, and encouraged her to reopen the restaurant, which was once the anchor of their community.
The local seer tells Natalie she must cook three dishes of her grandmother's for three of their neighbors who are having trouble. How can Natalie figure out which dishes to cook, and for whom? Will cooking these dishes actually make a difference? And why should Natalie care, when her neighbors left her and her mother to fend for themselves throughout her childhood?
Natalie Tan's Book of Luck and Fortune is a story about finding the courage to pursue your dreams no matter who stands in your way, and not giving up even when it seems every obstacle is trying to thwart you. It's also a book about finding your place in your community, and recognizing that caring about a person doesn't always mean agreeing with all of their choices. In the end, this is also a powerful story about secrets and how surprising it can be to learn the truth about things.
"Dreams, even modest ones, had a steep price. Mine had cost me my mother and given me the silence of seven years. Now that silence could never be breached."
I tend to enjoy books with a little bit of magic thrown in to the plot. Roselle Lim uses evocative imagery to convey the healing and restorative power of Natalie's cooking, as well as to describe emotions. Her words are truly gorgeous and create such wonderful mind pictures. Parts of this story warmed my heart, and parts made me cry.
Sure, the story gets a little bit melodramatic from time to time, and you pretty much can predict nearly everything that will happen in this book. But that barely mattered for me because of how much charm Natalie Tan's Book of Luck and Fortune had, how it tugged at my heart, and how the recipes included in the book made my stomach growl.
This is a quirky, sweet, tremendously endearing book that may be the perfect change of pace you're looking for. It's definitely a book I'll remember!
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