If there’s anything that can get me out of a reading slump, it’s a good book of essays. I have to thank Bev for mentioning Sean Dietrich’s new book, Tomato Sandwiches are Eaten Over the Sink. Everything she said last Thursday about this book is correct. The collection of essays about people and life in Alabama, some inspirational, and all of them short, was just perfect for me. The book is a keeper.
Although the essays are all short, a maximum of three pages, this isn’t an easy book to read because life isn’t easy. In fact, I found myself tearing up after reading every three or four essays. Dietrich’s own life wasn’t easy. His father killed himself when Dietrich was young, and he dropped out of school to go to work. Fathers are an important part of some of the essays. Dietrich eventually got his GED, and went to community college, and he gives his wife credit for making him the man and writer he is.
Sean Dietrich comes across as an ordinary person any of us could meet at the convenience store or local restaurant. And, those are the people he writes about. He tells about the people he saw in hospital parking lots, gas stations, any small town. He tells about people who take the “Pass It On” concept seriously. And, because he himself lost his father, he writes about foster children, orphans, lost children, ones who find a way out of their past. He writes about Christmases, and people who know how to show love.
Dietrich quietly observes the people that most of us overlook everyday. It’s a book filled with love for the places he knows, and the people who write to him, as well as the people he meets. Looking for a moving collection of essays, a collection that points out ordinary life continues despite national politics and all the loud news on TV. Tomato Sandwiches are Eaten Over the Sink is just the book I needed this year.
Note: I read this book on what would have been my father’s 93rd birthday. He’s been gone for over thirty years, but so many of these essays about fathers brought him back. This book touched my heart.
Tomato Sandwiches are Eaten Over the Sink by Sean Dietrich. 2024. ISBN 9788345197523 (paperback), 227p.
FTC Full Disclosure – I bought a copy of the book.
This sounds like a lovely book. My father, who would be 96, grew up in a small town in Northern Louisiana that I visited as a child. Perhaps not so different from where Dietrich lives.
It is a lovely book, Kim. I’m so glad Bev mentioned it last Thursday.
Sounds good. My father would have been 100 last September.
It was wonderful, Jeff. Just what I needed. Maybe the essays were a little repetitive at times, but not many people are going to sit down and read it straight through as I did.
Sounds good although I may have to skip some of the sadder ones. There is so much sadness in the world right now. My dad died 7 years ago at 88 and I think of him so often.
Thank you for reviewing such a wide variety of books Lesa. I have been in a reading slump lately and I never know what will catch my eye.
I’ve been in a slump, too, Susan. I’m currently reading a memoir, and I’ll mention it tomorrow. I’m sailing through it. You’re right, though. I need some variety to kickstart my reading.
Would love to read it!
It’s self-published, Carol, but I bought it through Amazon, so it’s out in the world. And, if you’re on Facebook, he writes essays there as Sean of the South.
I, too, turn to essay collections when I can’t find the “right” novel or non-fiction book. “One Man’s Meat” by E.B. White is one I turn to again and again. Many of the essays are about White learning to farmer in Maine after many years living in NYC and writing for the New Yorker magazine. White receives advice from many folks in the community…folks who are stories unto themselves. The essays were written during America’s lead-up to and then entry into WWII and those elements gradually seep into the content. And of course the writing is excellent.
Thank you, Laurie. I’m going to look for One Man’s Meat now. My all-time favorite collection of essays is by a woman from my home area in northern Ohio. Patricia Leimbach was a farm wife there. By the time I was a library director, she spoke at libraries and gatherings for farmers and farm wives. She was a former teacher who married a farmer. Her first book was A Thread of Blue Denim, and it just speaks of home to me.
When I read Bev’s comments about this book last week, I knew it sounded like something I’d like to read and so immediately added it to my want-to-read list. Now that I’ve also read your review of the book Lesa, it tells me I made the right call.
Lindy, I thought you were the one who recommended it, and I went back through last Thursday’s posts, only to find out it was Bev. I’m so glad she suggested it!
Oh, I’m so glad you liked it! I have all his books and have been sharing them with my friends who really enjoy them too.