Dinner with Edward: A Story of an Unexpected Friendship

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Although I can picture the atmosphere and warmth that the dinners exude, I feel like I am relying more on my experience than the author’s descriptions. Isabel Vincent delves deeply into matters of the kitchen and the heart with equal and unabashed passion.

Edward is teaching Isabel the luxury of slowing down and taking the time to think through everything she does, to deconstruct her own life, cutting it back to the bone and examining the guts, no matter how messy that proves to be. She is invited to dinner at his apartment at the behest of his daughter who is afraid that her father is giving up on life despite his promise to Paula that he would make the effort to keep going for the sake of their two daughters, Valerie and Laura.Edward was married to the love of his life for nearly 70 years, raised two successful daughters, essentially lived life as he chose and yet he comes across as a self-pitying snob. To balance the relationship we get Edward, a guy who set out to be an actor, then a playwright, then a poet.

Old fashioned, perfectly composed dinners reminiscent of Julia Child's French method of creating elegant cuisine are Edward's re-entry to having a passion for life again, and those meals begin by inviting Isabel to dinner weekly. The book manages to share condensed histories of both Edward and Isabel without delving into too much gratuitous detail.

With Edward, Isabel experiences chivalry, develops a sense of her own femininity and and examines life values from a broader scope. Isabel Vincent is an award-winning investigative reporter for The New York Post and the author of four books, including Gilded Lily: Lily Safra, The Making of One of the World's Wealthiest Widows.