Book ~ "Dinner with Edward: A Story of an Unexpected Friendship" (2016) Isabel Vincent

From Goodreads ~ When Isabel meets Edward, both are at a crossroads: he wants to follow his late wife to the grave and she is ready to give up on love. Thinking she is merely helping Edward’s daughter - who lives far away and asked her to check in on her nonagenarian dad in New York - Isabel has no idea that the man in the kitchen baking the sublime roast chicken and light-as-air apricot soufflé will end up changing her life.

As Edward and Isabel meet weekly for the glorious dinners that Edward prepares, he shares so much more than his recipes for apple galette or the perfect martini, or even his tips for deboning poultry. 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.

"Dinner with Edward" is a book about sorrow and joy, love and nourishment, and about how dinner with a friend can, in the words of M. F. K. Fisher, “sustain us against the hungers of the world.”

Edward was in his early 90s and had just lost his wife, Paula, of over 60 years. He wanted to join her in death but she had him promise that he wouldn't. So instead he's sadly living his life. Isabel's marriage is falling apart ... things are tense and she's unhappy. When Valerie, her oldest friend and one of Edward's daughters, becomes worried about him, she asks Isabel to check on him (Valerie lived in Toronto, his other daughter lived in Greece and Isabel and Edward lived in New York). Isabel does and that begins their friendship and their frequent dinners with Edward doing the elaborate cooking and them sharing stories about their lives.

I thought this story was okay. It was nice that they found each other in their times of need and became friends. It's written in first person perspective in Isabel's voice. I found Isabel and Edward a bit snooty at times, though. I know Edward was from a different generation but it was odd to have him advising her on how to better herself (telling her to wear more red lipstick, going fancy dress shopping with her, etc.) and Isabel going along with it. It would have been nice to have some photographs of them ... apparently Edward had tons in his apartment of his life with Paula.