28 Summers

Food serves as an important symbol in the novel, particularly for female characters. Preparing, eating, and enjoying food is generally associated with characters’ (most notably Mallory’s) ability—or lack thereof—to enjoy and nourish themselves. It also introduces an element of sensuality to female characters since food is often described in sensory terms such as sight, smell, texture, taste, etc. It is telling, then, that Ursula diets, picks at her food, and “now looked severely malnourished—passing supermodel stage, heading for famine victim” (61).

Mallory, conversely, loves food and Jake is attracted to her enthusiasm for it: “She loaded a pancake with moo shu pork until it was dripping and messy and took a lusty bite. Jake was so stunned by the vision of a woman enjoying her food rather than battling it that he wondered if he might be falling in love with her” (58). She is culinarily adventurous, preparing the Middle Eastern dish baba ghanouj. Again, her enthusiasm for food is apparent: “The result is so delicious, Mallory can’t scoop it into her mouth fast enough” (106). Continuing the food imagery, one of the two characters’ rituals is Jake preparing an omelet for Mallory, who eagerly devours it. Her highly symbolic attitude toward food is summarized at the end of the novel when the narrator states that Mallory is “not afraid of food” (402).

There are also various types of food that appear in the novel. Leland prefers fashionable food and chic menu items, in keeping with her urbane, sophisticated nature (352). Mallory’s offerings of foods to her houseguests tend to be gendered—Jake, Cooper, and other male guests are offered burgers. However, when Leland and Fifi come to visit, Mallory serves light, dainty foods: “a layered fruit salad and […] orange-rosemary muffins, which she’ll serve for breakfast with homemade honey butter” and a “bowl of peaches, plums, nectarines, and apricots” (131). She makes fish rather than burgers and serves a salad (132). The association of men with heartier, less “healthy” food is continued when Mallory flees from the cottage and flirts with Bayer in Chapter 6. She orders a burger and fries, which impresses him (141). Men seem to be attracted to Mallory’s interest and enjoyment in food, which again suggests that the acts of cooking and eating represent enjoyment, nourishment, and a lack of inhibition