My Kitchen Table / Pilar Pobil / 2007

My Kitchen Table / Pilar Pobil / 2007

This book is horribly marketed as a coffee table book of an old woman's charming stories and paintings. Its cover, while a good painting by Pilar, is too pedestrian for such an energetic, catty book about aristocratic life in the turmoil of the Spanish Civil War and fascist Spain, as well as the bougiest Mormon circles of Salt Lake City. There are moments when I was heartbroken for girl Pilar, breaking out into laughter at her pettiness, and then forgivingly embarrassed for some of the classist attitudes in the book. Pilar is genuinely so charming I don't mind the white upper class perspective no amounts of self awareness and education can entirely undo, even when it's positively socially flawed for today's era, which happens occasionally but not too unforgivably. The book is marked by truly monumental encounters with historic figures, as well as feminist determination necessary for any independent woman of this era. It was such a pleasure to read. 4.5/5