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There are currently 42 member reviews
for The Mouse-Proof Kitchen
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Edie M. (Kennett Square, PA)
The Mouse-Proof Kitchen
I expected this book to be funny, instead, I found it to be on the verge of depressing. Saira Shah does have a way with her writing to keep the reader interested though.
I would recommend this book to the over 40 crowd.
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Vy A. (Phoenix, AZ)
The Mouse-Proof Kitchen
The Mouse-Proof Kitchen is a book that is well written but at times was very difficult to read because Anna and her husband Tobias face so many unbelievable challenges when their baby is born with extreme disabilities. Author Shah doesn't sugarcoat anything, and the result is that we feel we are living with their extreme frustration and conflicting feelings of fear, love, responsibility and rejection concerning their daughter. As if that were not challenge enough the conditions of the mouse-infested home they have purchased in France are deplorable. Of course their relationship is put to the test and one has to continue reading to see how they manage to deal with all the adversity. The minor characters are interesting and well developed. I would recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in evolution of plant life works in the French countryside, but mainly to those who feel life has dealt them a difficult hand. I think by comparison to this family, one will count their blessings.
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Renee P. (Sanford, FL)
Profound honesty makes for an uncomfortable read.
I have to admit I have really mixed feelings about this book. I found myself admiring the sheer bluntness and candid honesty of Shah's feelings upon learning of the severe disabilities her child was born with. The knee jerk reactions of both she and her husband were at once difficult to read and in some ways easy to understand. His almost instinctive personal defensive action to simply walk away and leave the child in the hospital is disturbing in a way I find difficult to explain. As a parent, part of me fully understands that first, "OH NO, not my child," feeling, the desire to retreat to the "perfect child fantasy," while at the same time I was secretly gloating and patting myself on the back because my children are nice and normal and I did not have to face the difficult decisions they were faced with.
And, if I am to be as brutally honest as Shah was in describing her feelings, it is that instinctual parental gloating that gets in the way of my really enjoying this book.
I can't say I liked either one of these parents very much, even after they did finally snap out of their individual wallowing around in angst and self-pity, yet ... I cannot say I would not have reacted in the very same ways if it had been my children and that makes for some disconcerting reactions on my part while reading.
While on one had I did admire Shah's ability to show all the "warts and hidden excrescences" that being dealt that shattering parental blow must create, I did find reading her detailing of it extremely uncomfortable.
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Marion C. (Litchfield, NH)
Lessons in Love
The Mouse Proof Kitchen is the story of Tobias and Anna whose perfect life is shattered when their daughter Freya is born: flawed. Will they be able to give her unconditional love?
Their lives change when they leave England to live in France. They are the new owners of an old farmhouse Les Rajons at the top of a large hill open to the wind on all sides. Their view is of the Pyrenees and the Mediterranean Sea. The story recounts their struggles with leaky roofs, mold, and rats in the kitchen. Anna gets organized and deals with Freya's demanding and critical medical care while cleaning up and repairing the house for her planned French cooking school or a restaurant for tourists.
Dealing with serious questions of parenthood and desperate housing problems, The Mouse Proof Kitchen is written with good-natured humor of farm life in rural south France that ends happily. I enjoyed the quick read and will read more of Shah's books.
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Penny P. (Santa Barbara, CA)
Mouse Proof Kitchen
I really enjoyed this book and will recommend it to my book club. I think the author was able to take a difficult subject, that of raising a disabled child,and still have the book be entertaining and insightful. The mice (rats) are really just symbolic of all the things we would like to be able to control in our lives but can't. As always, I am heartened by the love that most mothers have for their children even when it comes at a great cost to their own personal freedom. It is a book that I will remember.
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Esther L. (Newtown, PA)
A Touching Journey of Love.
Raising a profoundly mentally and physically handicapped child is incredibly hard on a marriage. Moving from London to a decaying farmhouse in the remote region of Languedoc in France because they couldn't afford the properties in Provence doesn't help their situation.Anna and Tobias each cope differently with Freya's problems. Tobias hides in his music studio while Anna tries unsuccessfully to mouse proof her kitchen. Kitchens can't be truly mouse proof and life isn't foolproof either. A touching journey.
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Janice S. (Scotts Hill, TN)
An Emotional Rollercoaster
The author comes very close to the reality faced by parents who have their lives planned and are totally disrupted by the birth of a special needs child. You will struggle with them as you take an emotional journey filled with laughter, tears,sadness, happiness , and the search for balance in a world that is spinning out of control.
You will ride an emotional rollercoaster from the depths of despair, to the miracle of love and hope. You can no more mouseproof the kitchen than you can protect your heart from the gift of a child, even one born with many disabilities.
