One August day, months after her marriage abruptly ended, a heart-shaped baking tin fell at Bee Wilson's feet: the same one she had used to bake her wedding cake twenty-three years prior. This discovery struck a wave of emotions that propelled her search for others who have attached magical and personal properties to the objects in their kitchens.
An effective device ... Although her research chops and deep knowledge of culinary history are evident in this wide-ranging exploration, the core of The Heart-Shaped Tin is a sensitive account of endurance in the face of change .... The chapters devoted to Wilson’s mother....are particularly moving ... Surprisingly comforting.
Wise, engaging ... Perhaps the most profound story here belongs to Jacob Chaim, who, during his years in a Nazi forced-labor camp, secretly crafted a small tin spoon that would come to affirm his sense of humanity ... The tin was only an inanimate object; but in reframing its meaning, she has reopened her heart.
Bee Wilson speaks for many in finding a particular comfort in objects associated with the kitchen ... Wilson’s fascinating study ranges widely ... This kind of book requires the author to find parallels in her own life, and sometimes Wilson’s feel strained ... Her overall thesis, though, is absorbing and persuasive, and her ideas on consumerism strike a chord.
