Critical Essay | Critical Essay by Catherine Cowen Olson

Critical Essay by Catherine Cowen Olson

SOURCE: “You Are What You Eat: Food and Power in Jane Smiley's A Thousand Acres,” in Midwest Quarterly, Vol. 40, No. 1, Autumn, 1998, pp. 21–33.

In the following essay, Olson studies the relationship between food and power in Smiley's A Thousand Acres.

I'm the angriest person in the restaurant; I'm the only angry person in the restaurant.” So laments Jane Smiley in her 1993 article, “Reflections on a Lettuce Wedge.” In this self-described “diatribe” against the dullness of midwestern cooking, Smiley complains that she is fed up with eating at restaurants where “the salad” is a wedge of … iceberg lettuce floating in bright orange ‘French’ dressing,” where patrons gladly pay top dollar for “instant mashed potatoes” and “machine-formed turkey breast.” “Why do midwesterners hold their tastebuds in lower esteem than everyone else in the whole world, even the notorious British?,” she demands to know.

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