"[To Live] Most Agreeably in a World Full of an Increasing Number of Disagreeable Surprises”: Revisiting How to Cook a Wolf by M. F. K. Fisher in 2020 During Quarantine

ABSTRACT

M. F. K. Fisher's food memoirs have been interpreted as works that possess literary sta-tus. Fisher's 1942 book How to Cook a Wolf, a collection of essays about food rationing during World War II, became popular again during the 2020 lockdown because it pro-vided a timely reflection on the domestic kitchen as a shelter in uncertain times. This article includes an overview of food writing as a genre and considers the relevance of Fisher's book through the concepts of healthism and hypervigilant subject, which are involved in contemporary discourses on eating and the human body. My analysis aims to demonstrate that How to Cook a Wolf invites its readers to reconcile with their appetite and their corporeality and to chase the new perils away with the delight and soothing ability to eat amid periods of crisis. © 2023, Universidad de los Andes, Colombia. All rights reserved.